One of the prompts for the Back to the Classics Challenge this year was to read a new-to-you classic by a favorite author. This was an easy pick for me, as I dearly love Charles Dickens (most of the time) and I had Our Mutual Friend on my Classics Club list already. I was first interested in this novel because one of my literature professors in college claimed that this was Dickens's best work (she made us read Bleak House for the class though, which I ended up loving). I was curious to see if I would feel the same way as her. I think I didn't pick it up until now purely because of the length. My version was 800 pages of tiny print, and I knew it would take a long time to finish. However, as this is my final year of my Classics Club Challenge, I finally took the plunge this month and gave it a try.
Our Mutual Friend is a novel with a vast cast of characters and many separate plotlines running concurrently. All of the action however, is connected with a large inheritance and a mysterious murder. At the start of the novel, we learn that an old miser named Mr. Harmon has recently passed away, leaving a large fortune behind. Having alienated his son John during his lifetime, he ends up creating a rather unusual will, designed to control him from beyond the grave. He leaves his entire estate to him, on the condition that he marries a young lady named Bella Wilfer. If he does not marry this woman, then he inherits nothing and the estate will fall to Mr. Boffin, a servant that helped manage the property for several years. John has never met this young woman before and knows nothing about her, but he decides to try the marriage anyway. However, as he is traveling to London to meet her for the first time, he is murdered by an unknown assailant.
The murder of John Harmon sets off a chain of events that affect a wide variety of characters connected in various ways to the inheritance. Mr. Boffin, the former servant, suddenly becomes a very wealthy man and must learn how to live like rich people do. Bella Wilfer, disappointed to lose a fortune, becomes quite mercenary in her quest to find another wealthy man to marry. Silas Wegg, a new servant of Mr. Boffin, becomes obsessed with finding a way to weasel away some of the estate for himself. My Wrayburn, a lawyer connected with the estate, becomes enamored with the daughter of the man who found Harmon's body and must grapple with the attraction to someone below his social station. Mr. and Mrs. Lammle, two society people on the brink of bankruptcy, try to scheme their way into pocketing some of the fortune with the help of an unscrupulous moneylender. John Rokesmith, Mr. Boffin's new secretary, attempts to protect his boss's new fortune from all the different people looking to take a piece of it. There are several more characters involved here too--this is only a small sample of the madness that ensues around the Harmon inheritance. There are around twenty major characters followed throughout the course of the story and a similar number of minor characters that appear from time to time. What they have in common is that they are all touched by the often-corrupting influence of wealth, and their lives are all changed because of it.
Our Mutual Friend was Dickens's last novel, and it does feel like the sum of his writing experiences. It has all of the his signature elements: dastardly villains, virtuous orphans, hilarious buffoons, eccentric oddballs, and admirable heroes. Biting social commentary is here as well, with his feelings about the power and dangers of money taking center stage. The upper crust of society is also mercilessly lampooned, with several chapters dedicated to their silly and narcissistic social gatherings. Of course, layered in between all of the silliness is a compelling and emotional story in which the more realistic of the characters learn and grow, to their benefit, or don't, to their peril. It feels like a magnum opus. If you are a fan of Dickens, and a fan of Victorian literature, you will certainly like this book.
That being said, this wasn't exactly an easy read for me. I don't think I was in the proper mood to take on such a dense book, so even though I liked most of what I was reading, a lot of it did feel slow. I think this story is one meant to be savored and enjoyed at a leisurely pace. I wasn't in that place, so I felt antsy from time to time. I was also a bit bothered by some of the parts that didn't age so well. For example, there is a Jewish character in the story named Mr. Riah. He's one of the good guys. He doesn't have much money, but is rich in kindness, care, and patience. Since he is Jewish, however, most of the other characters in the book treat him abominably. The amount of antisemitism shown towards him is ugly, intense, and very tiring to read. I'm not talking about just a few pages of it here either. Almost every time Mr. Riah makes an appearance in the text, the antisemitic comments fly thick and fast. Obviously, the time period is to blame for this, and I'm used to making allowances for this sort of thing in classic novels. That doesn't make it pleasant to read though.
Another piece of the story that irked me was the paternalistic treatment of Bella Wilfer. A big part of the novel concerns her reformation from a wealth-obsessed character to a proper, virtuous lady. Many of the people around her assist with this transition through some pretty serious subterfuge and lying. She is treated with less respect than a child throughout the story. Of course, Bella is grateful for this treatment in the end, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Everyone around her was creepy and controlling and she didn't mind a bit. I don't want to get into specifics because I don't want to spoil key plot points, but the lies she is told are serious, cause her intense emotional distress, and come from the people closest to her. I couldn't help but feel like she should have been at least a little bit mad about it. This kind of treatment of women is another common trope of the time period, so I don't fault Dickens for including it, but it is one of those plot elements that are really not entertaining to modern audiences any longer. The men around her are so damn smug about teaching her a lesson and deceiving her "for her own good" that it spoiled a good chunk of the ending for me.
All that being said though, I did like parts of this novel a great deal. I certainly agreed with Dickens' point about wealth being a corrupting influence on people, and his large, quirky cast of characters were fun to get to know. No one can create a circus of personalities like Dickens can, and his intricate storytelling is a pleasure to watch unfold. Thinking back to my professor who said this was Dickens's finest work, I think she was probably right. Our Mutual Friend is absolutely masterful. All things considered, I enjoyed Bleak House a bit more than this, but this is certainly worth the read for anyone that considers themselves a fan of Dickens's work. It's a long, twisty journey, but it is worth the time.
Challenge Tally
Back to the Classics 2021 (New-to-you Classic by a Favorite Author): 4/12
Classics Club (#55 on my list): 86/100 books completed
Total Books Read in 2021: 13
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So, what do you think?