Our Mutual Friend

For other uses, see Our Mutual Friend (disambiguation).

Our Mutual Friend
Cover of serial No. 8, December 1864
AuthorCharles Dickens
Cover artistMarcus Stone
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherChapman & Hall
Publication date
Serialised 1864–65; book form 1865
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint
Preceded byGreat Expectations 
Followed byThe Mystery of Edwin Drood 
TextOur Mutual Friend at Wikisource

Our Mutual Friend, written in 1864–1865, is the last novel completed by English author Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, quoting the book's character Bella Wilfer, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life".[1]

Most reviewers in the 1860s continued to praise Dickens's skill as a writer in general, but did not review this novel in detail. Some found the plot both too complex and not well laid out.[2] The Times of London found the first few chapters did not draw the reader into the characters. In the 20th century, however, reviewers began to find much to approve in the later novels of Dickens, including Our Mutual Friend.[3] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some reviewers suggested that Dickens was, in fact, experimenting with structure,[4][5] and that the characters considered somewhat flat and not recognized by the contemporary reviewers[6] were meant rather to be true representations of the Victorian working class and the key to understanding the structure of the society depicted by Dickens in the novel.[6][7]

  1. ^ Joseph Hillis Miller, Victorian Subjects. Duke University Press, 1991, p. 69.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference New Books 1865 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wilson2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Reed200615 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hecimovich1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Nelson1970 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hecimovich966 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).