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lindseysparks 's review for:
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend is frequently compared to Bleak House and Little Dorritt, which I think is funny because those are my favorite and least favorite Dickens' books (out of the ones I have read - still missing a couple).
It does have the mystery aspect and more nuanced female characters like Bleak House and drags significantly in the middle like Little Dorritt does. I really liked the beginning and the ending but man this was boring in the middle.
Although I liked the female characters here better than in many of Dickens' novels, I was frustrated at the way Bella was treated and manipulated by people who care about her to "fix" her. I would have been furious at the end if I was her, but instead she has converted to Dickens' ideal female - submissive, well mannered and angelic. But at the same time, I appreciated Bella's earlier fight with the Boffins, which Dickens also seemed to have admired. It is not an easy book to review or to sort my thoughts out about, which is also true of Dickens himself who on one hand I love so much I cried at his grave in Westminster but at the same time realize that he seems like he was a bit of an ass.
I will say reading this made me appreciate why the writers on Lost had Desmond carry it around. The book centers a lot on the line between life and death. I think in my rankings of Dickens' books it goes above Little Dorritt (which I didn't like) and above The Old Curiosity Shop (which was mostly forgettable) as well. I think all three of these suffer from not having a great cast of secondary characters the way most of Dickens' books do. Except for Jenny the secondary characters in this all ran together. There were no Mr. Skimpoles or Mrs. Jellybys or Uriah Heeps here.
It does have the mystery aspect and more nuanced female characters like Bleak House and drags significantly in the middle like Little Dorritt does. I really liked the beginning and the ending but man this was boring in the middle.
Although I liked the female characters here better than in many of Dickens' novels, I was frustrated at the way Bella was treated and manipulated by people who care about her to "fix" her. I would have been furious at the end if I was her, but instead she has converted to Dickens' ideal female - submissive, well mannered and angelic. But at the same time, I appreciated Bella's earlier fight with the Boffins, which Dickens also seemed to have admired. It is not an easy book to review or to sort my thoughts out about, which is also true of Dickens himself who on one hand I love so much I cried at his grave in Westminster but at the same time realize that he seems like he was a bit of an ass.
I will say reading this made me appreciate why the writers on Lost had Desmond carry it around. The book centers a lot on the line between life and death. I think in my rankings of Dickens' books it goes above Little Dorritt (which I didn't like) and above The Old Curiosity Shop (which was mostly forgettable) as well. I think all three of these suffer from not having a great cast of secondary characters the way most of Dickens' books do. Except for Jenny the secondary characters in this all ran together. There were no Mr. Skimpoles or Mrs. Jellybys or Uriah Heeps here.