Victorians! discussion

Our Mutual Friend, first published in nineteen instalments between May 1864 and November 1865, is Charles Dickens' last completed novel.

When a rich miser dies, his estranged son and heir John Harmon is to return from abroad, but he will inherit his father's fortune (meanwhile in the care of his faithful employees and only friends the Boffins) only if he marries Bella Wilfer, someone Harmon has never seen. But Harmon doesn't appear. Meanwhile a body is found in the Thames by Gaffer Hexam who makes his living fishing out corpses and emptying their pockets before handing them over to the authorities. As Harmon is suspected to have been killed, the property devolves on the Boffins who take in Bella to make up for the misfortune that has befallen her. Their stories, of the Boffins, of Bella and her family, of the Hexams and also Mortimer Lightwood, the lawyer in-charge of executing the will are some of the threads that we will follow as we read the book.

Since this is a long book, I've worked out a schedule for about ten weeks which will be around 80 pages a week of reading (This is based on my Wordsworth edition).

Week 1: 23rd Feb: Ch. I-VII (book 1)
Week 2: 2 March: Ch. VIII-XIII (book 1)
Week 3: 9 March: Ch. XIV (book 1) -Ch. III (book 2)
Week 4: 16 March: Ch. IV-X (book 2)
Week 5: 23 March: Ch. XI-VI (book 2)
Week 6: 30 March: Ch. I-VIII (book 3)
Week 7: 6 April: Ch. IX-XIV (book 3)
Week 8: 13 April: Ch. XV (book 3)- Ch. IV (book 4)
Week 9: 20 April: Ch. V-XII (book 4)
Week 10: Ch. XIII-End.

The book is available via Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/883

Audio version via Librivox here: https://librivox.org/search?title=Our...

Most of Charles Dickens' books were illustratedby Hablot Knight Brown or 'Phiz' but Our Mutual Friend is illustrated by Marcus Stone.

In case you edition doesn't have the illustrations, find them here: https://charlesdickenspage.com/illust...

Also here (but this seems to have illustrations for only two volumes): https://omf.ucsc.edu/publication/illu...

Some maps: London and East End of OMF: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug01/kord...

Also here: https://omf.ucsc.edu/london-1865/vict...

Dickens

Born on 7 February 1812 (I missed his Birthday by one day, I see), Charles Dickens is seen by many as the greatest Victorian novelist. He wrote 14 (and a half) novels, 5 novellas, besides hundreds of short stories and essays. He also delivered lectures, performed readings, and campaigned for several social issues including education and children's rights. Social issues in fact, also are themes in many of his novels.

A bio on the Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/d...

The Dickens page on the Victorian Web which goes into various aspects of Dickens and his work (political history, science, economics, social history, language and symbols, and much else): http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/d...

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...

Thank you, Malika! This is one of my favorite Dickens. There’s so much going on and the threads are so varied and interesting, yet the story somehow weaves them all so deftly. What a great way to be carried from Winter into the Spring!

Obviously, whichever edition you like is the right one for you.
I just want to put in a word for my favorite Penguin Classics edition of Our Mutual Friend because of the excellent "End Notes" to the text that this series has -- even better (more comprehensive, I think), for notes, than the Oxford World's Classics.

And many thanks to Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore for all the resources!

I did not know about Librivox.

One note on his biography: I'm not an expert but it is a commonality that he literally "killed himself" with his punishing schedule of public readings at the end of his life. That is to say, he hastened his own death by not letting up.

Gregory wrote: "One note on his biography: I'm not an expert but it is a commonality that he literally "killed himself" with his punishing schedule of public readings at the end of his life. That is to say, he has..."

So I've read too. I'm yet to read a newer Dickens bio though I have read the one by Chesterton.

Well, I have the book, I am ready to start! :) A couple of questions: do we post our comments on the book as we go along, or do we wait till the end of each week? How do we handle "spoilers"?

Fern wrote: "Well, I have the book, I am ready to start! :) A couple of questions: do we post our comments on the book as we go along, or do we wait till the end of each week? How do we handle "spoilers"?"

I be starting/opening the discussion threads for each segment on the date mentioned, so you can post comments on that section there--spoilers are fine so long as they aren't for a segment that is yet to come up :)

Ah okay I understand. Looking forward to the discussions :)

I'm hoping to start reading this in first week of March. Looking forward to joining in with discussion then. :)

Piyangie wrote: "I'm hoping to start reading this in first week of March. Looking forward to joining in with discussion then. :)"

Good to hear that Piyangie! Join in whenever you're ready :)

Received my copy of Our Mutual Friend today. Looking forward to the upcoming discussions. Hopefully when we finish the novel Spring will have finally arrived!

Laurene wrote: "Received my copy of Our Mutual Friend today. Looking forward to the upcoming discussions. Hopefully when we finish the novel Spring will have finally arrived!"

Good to hear that! (and I hope so too about spring-Its much warmer now in my part of the world but am kind of getting fed up of winter now :))