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mark_b 's review for:
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend is a long read, originally published in monthly installments over a year and a half in 1864-1865. Many themes are present, but the dominant ones are money and social status. Money lenders, lawyers, inherited wealth, mistaken identity, marriage, the status of women, wills, and social etiquette are also prominent.
Many, many characters populate Our Mutual Friend. I cheated and consulted Wikipedia’s list of characters to avoid confusion.
A Jew, Riah, plays a role in the story. In Our Mutual Friend, he’s a sympathetic character, unlike the evil Fagin in Oliver Twist. I’m no Dickens scholar, so I can’t really say that Riah’s role in the story means anything significant about the author’s attitudes toward 19th century England’s Jewish population.
In an afterward Dickens acknowledges the apparent improbability of much of the plot, but he also writes that many of the individual elements are commonplace. That’s partly what makes Our Mutual Friend so readable. Highly recommended.
Many, many characters populate Our Mutual Friend. I cheated and consulted Wikipedia’s list of characters to avoid confusion.
A Jew, Riah, plays a role in the story. In Our Mutual Friend, he’s a sympathetic character, unlike the evil Fagin in Oliver Twist. I’m no Dickens scholar, so I can’t really say that Riah’s role in the story means anything significant about the author’s attitudes toward 19th century England’s Jewish population.
In an afterward Dickens acknowledges the apparent improbability of much of the plot, but he also writes that many of the individual elements are commonplace. That’s partly what makes Our Mutual Friend so readable. Highly recommended.