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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is, by far, my favorite work by Dickens. His last fully completed novel, it is the epitome of all of his signature styles. The characters are rich and varied, the plotline complex, and the themes universal. Dickens speaks mainly on the corruptive purposes of money, but with his dearth of description and literary texture, it is so much more than that. The likeable characters warm your heart, the scalawags infuriate you. The morals seem fresh and applicable. I read this book because a favorite television show of mine featured it in a storyline, but they never gave away the plot -- it was enshrouded by mystery. My need to discover this mystery gave me a reading experience I am profoundly grateful for, and I will always recommend this book. -Karen H.-
Only Dickens can conjure up a real London with as many characters as needed and make them real. Whether we will encounter a character for two pages or two hundreds, he makes them all so real that it allows the reader to feel like they have just gone to Dickens Town or really : Foggy London.
Everything was dramatic, suspenseful and so so satirical.
This is a real treat.
As I had felt for David Copperfield, I have the same impression as when I remove my glasses, I need a few moments to adjust to reality.
Everything was dramatic, suspenseful and so so satirical.
This is a real treat.
As I had felt for David Copperfield, I have the same impression as when I remove my glasses, I need a few moments to adjust to reality.
Ok. I both did and didn’t like this book, but in the end the pros outweighed the cons. At the start especially, it was tough to get into; lots of abstract meandering and things. But, the story is good, and holds its own. There are more unlikeable than likeable characters, but they aren’t so bad that they put you off...instead they motivate you to read further. Because of the classic nature of this book and the fame it holds, I would say sure, read it! Not my favourite book of all time, but I’m glad i persevered none the less.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The white face of the winter day came sluggishly on, veiled in a frosty mist; and the shadowy ships in the river slowly changed to black substances; and the sun, blood-red on the eastern marshes behind dark masts and yards, seemed filled with the ruins of a forest it had set on fire.
Seven months of nibbles, most of these clusters, all braced with serious efforts to remember characters, enlisting wikipedia and rereading, rather often, entire chapters. I'm glad I read such, though I felt most of the characters lived on plotlines like so many pigeons perched above the interstate. Maybe I am being greedy, but i wanted some tension between the molar and molecular, maybe like my instincts I prefer the argumentative quantity, a murder of crows assuming control on the deserted football pitch. Maybe I want more struggle and uncertainty. That said, Our Mutual Friend does have the example of Bradley Headstone; there is an example of actualized potential. Well, the plot certainly benefited. His plausibility should be left for the fore-mentioned crows. Such fare would be a diversion.
Seven months of nibbles, most of these clusters, all braced with serious efforts to remember characters, enlisting wikipedia and rereading, rather often, entire chapters. I'm glad I read such, though I felt most of the characters lived on plotlines like so many pigeons perched above the interstate. Maybe I am being greedy, but i wanted some tension between the molar and molecular, maybe like my instincts I prefer the argumentative quantity, a murder of crows assuming control on the deserted football pitch. Maybe I want more struggle and uncertainty. That said, Our Mutual Friend does have the example of Bradley Headstone; there is an example of actualized potential. Well, the plot certainly benefited. His plausibility should be left for the fore-mentioned crows. Such fare would be a diversion.
I felt like I was slogging through this one. It took me close to a month to read! Although there were quite a few laugh out loud moments and a good moral, there were few likeable characters in this very long book. Not my favorite Dickens.
“Our Mutual Friend” is one of the Dickens books mentioned several times in KJ Charles’s books (that fact is part of the reason I decided to read all of Dickens‘s books in the first place), and all I knew about it was that it featured a presever. It’s Dickens’s last finished novel, so it’s an interesting contrast to “The Pickwick Papers”. (It wasn’t a conscious choice to read them in this order, but a fortunate one now that I realize it.) It’s interesting to see how much his storytelling capabilities have developed, how he uses foreshadowing and how he lays the groundwork for later plot developments. I actually like both his energetic, more slap-dash approach and this book’s more sophisticated plot.
In terms of just the story, this may be the best Dickens book I‘ve read so far. As in, if you asked me for the Dickens book with the most involving plot, this is the one I‘d recommend. Other books are funnier or have better characters, or more abstract literary merits, but this one wins “best plot“ (so far).
Also, as an aside, I just love that I am not the only person shipping Eugene and Mortimer. There are many reasons to hate the internet, but fanfiction isn’t one of them.
Another thing I love: The postscript where Dickens writes, “[...] to hint to an audience that an artist (of whatever denomination) may perhaps be trusted to know what he is about in his vocation, of they will perhaps concede him a little patience [...]”. He sounds like a GoT writer ahead of his times.
In terms of just the story, this may be the best Dickens book I‘ve read so far. As in, if you asked me for the Dickens book with the most involving plot, this is the one I‘d recommend. Other books are funnier or have better characters, or more abstract literary merits, but this one wins “best plot“ (so far).
Also, as an aside, I just love that I am not the only person shipping Eugene and Mortimer. There are many reasons to hate the internet, but fanfiction isn’t one of them.
Another thing I love: The postscript where Dickens writes, “[...] to hint to an audience that an artist (of whatever denomination) may perhaps be trusted to know what he is about in his vocation, of they will perhaps concede him a little patience [...]”. He sounds like a GoT writer ahead of his times.
Dickens’s last completed novel is teeming with characters and indignation at social injustice. Exploring class and the capitalist system, Our Mutual Friend revolves around water and dust: the River Thames runs through the book’s interweaving narratives while the background is the profitable business of “dust”, or rubbish disposal. Its core plot follows spoilt young woman Bella Wilfer, “golden dustman” Mr Boffin and his secretary John Rokesmith after the death of Mr Boffin’s miserly boss, Harmon. Mr & Mrs Boffin are elevated to richness by the murder of Harmon’s son, whose body is found by Thames corpse-robber Gaffer Hexam. His saintly daughter Lizzie Hexam features in a second linked plot along with her selfish brother Charley, idling lawyers Eugene Wrayburn and Mortimer Lightwood, her doll-dressmaker friend Jenny Wren & teacher Bradley Headstone. Added to these are parasitic Silas Wegg, taxidermist Mr Venus, the good-hearted Jew Mr Riah, and devious wastrel Roger Riderhood. Alongside this, you have the amoral nouveau-riche upper middle classes represented by the Veneerings, the Podsnaps, the conniving Lammles, duplicitous moneylender Fledgeby and the ineffectual Twemlow. Hitting over 800 pages in the excellent Penguin Vintage edition, it’s a slog at times, especially in its satire of “Society”, but it is illuminated by its colourful characters, its picture of 19th-century London and the Thames, and its overall storytelling.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated