Mysterious disappearances, heaps of dust, a spoiled girl, dinners in high society—all this meets in Dickens’ novel Our Mutual Friend. With Dickens’ most lovable heroine, this is a book it’d be hard not to enjoy.
Our Mutual Friend is not as long as Dickens’ longest books, but I guess it’s about the length of David Copperfield. It’s like three times as long as something along the lines of Anne of Green Gables or Ivanhoe. Probably a little more than twice as long as Pride and Prejudice.
Dickens tends to make use of a wide vocabulary and complex sentence structures in his writing style, so it would be hard for a child to understand much. This particular book has one violent character, but in general is not as dark as some of Dickens’ stories. I give it a 15+ age range.
As always, you can skip straight to the bottom for a brief recap and a link to the ebook, or read through for all the details!
The Plot [spoiler alert!]
Like all Dickens’ novels, Our Mutual Friend is packed with characters. It’s hard to know how many to mention in a plot summary, but two sets of characters certainly need to be highlighted. There’s a third set also, which I’ll describe briefly after going through the first two. These three sets of characters have their own arcs, largely independent of each other but interacting at key points.
First of all (first because this is where the book starts), there’s the Lizzie Hexam—Eugene Wrayburn—Mr. Headstone triangle. Lizzie is the heroine, Eugene the maybe hero maybe villain, and Mr. Headstone the villain. Lizzie is a poor girl (poor but perfect—most of Dickens’ heroines are perfect), who attracts the attention of a thoughtless gentleman, Eugene Wrayburn, and a passionate schoolmaster, Bradley Headstone. Between the two she has a rather rough life of it. Eventually Bradley tries to kill Eugene and leaves him for dead. Lizzie rescues him, and Eugene, repentant of his carelessly selfish lifestyle, decides to marry Lizzie. He expects to die, but instead recovers. I’m pretty mad at him for not dying.
The second and central (and most enjoyable) story arc is the John Harmon arc. John Harmon, going by the pseudonym John Rokesmith, is a “mutual friend” of two families; the Boffins and the Wilfers. Friend is a generous word; the Wilfers are his landlords and the Boffins employ him as secretary. In both these cases, however, he’s concealing his true identity because revealing it would substantially alter his position with respect to either family.
In fact, John is the son of a wealthy old miser. After a long absence he returns from foreign shores to inherit the property—maybe. The eccentric and selfish old man left John his property on condition that John marry one Bella Wilfer—a girl John has never met, and whose only recommendation is that she was an ill-behaved, spoiled little girl old Harmon met at the park one day. Naturally, John would like to scout things out a bit before he commits himself, and he realizes that he’s not likely to be able to get to know the real Bella if he presents himself in the character of her only-rich-if-I-marry-you potential husband. So with the help of a sailor who looks a bit like him, he concocts a plan to temporarily disappear.
The sailor, however, proves to be a rascal. John is very nearly murdered, and is only saved by the sailor’s accomplice—an even bigger rascal, who murders the sailor and throws them both into the river Thames for dead. But, when John recovers from his involuntary bath enough to be able to think about things, he realizes being dead is the most thorough disguise he could ask for.
While John takes lodgings at Bella’s house under a fake name, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin come into old Harmon’s property as the next in line. They’re unsophisticated but true-hearted, and sincerely regret the loss of the young John Harmon (who they both knew as a child, but never met as a man). John finds employment with Mr. Boffin as a secretary to help him navigate his new wealth.
Not to make this summary too long, let’s take a quick look at Bella. She’s fulfilled the promise of the spoiled child and is now a spoiled young woman. But a likably spoiled one, as John finds out to his distress. The Boffins, understanding Bella’s disappointment in losing the fortune she would have received by marrying John Harmon, invite her to live with them and treat her as their daughter, giving her to understand that they will settle a generous amount of money on her when she marries. Bella determines to marry well—which to her means, marry someone rich. She looks with scant favor on the interest penniless John Rokesmith, secretary, shows in her.
John sees that Bella is mercenary and won’t give him a chance, and he also sees the Boffins enjoying their fortune and using it well, so he decides that John Harmon is well out of this world and won’t be brought back. But just in case, that there may be no regrets, he decides to avow his love for Bella. She gives him her opinion in no uncertain terms.
Mrs. Boffin finds a dismal John sitting in front of the fire in his room. In a sudden flash of recognition she knows him for John Harmon, and calls him out on it. Both she and Mr. Boffin are overjoyed. They persuade John to give them a chance to try Bella out and see if she’s really as heartless and mercenary as she’s been acting.
Although no secret has been made of John Rokesmith being John Harmon, his little plot with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin is kept secret from the reader. So when Mr. Boffin begins to turn miserly, the reader is left to suppose, as Bella is reluctantly forced to conclude, that Mr. Boffin—bluff, jolly, generous Mr. Boffin—is being thoroughly spoiled by his sudden wealth.
Bella sees the change with growing dismay. But the tendency (as well as some interaction with Lizzie Hexam—see first arc above) awakes her to her own folly in thinking a rich lifestyle better than a loving home. When Mr. Boffin, in a final crowning piece of drama, snubs Mr. Rokesmith and turns him out of the house for daring—penniless fool!—to aspire to the hand of Bella, Bella is horrified, thoroughly disgusted with her previous self, and very much in love with John. She refuses to remain with the Boffins and returns to her father—whither she is promptly followed by an ecstatic John.
But John isn’t ready to reveal his identity as John Harmon just yet, though Mr. and Mrs. Boffin urge him to do so. John is a little afraid of how Bella will take it, and besides enjoys seeing how thoroughly unimportant wealth now is to her. In short, they get married and already have a baby before the pressure of circumstances—being suspected of murdering John Harmon, in fact—forces John to reveal his identity and accept his inheritance.
I always thought—this is a sort of side note—that the way Bella fell in love with John was absolutely hilarious. Essentially, John and the Boffins between them concocted a plot to make her feel extremely sorry for John. But it was all fake! Mr. Boffin wasn’t actually treating John badly at all. I kind of wish Dickens had embraced this absurdity and made Bella realize it after everything was revealed. To me, it seems like it called for a sort of exasperated if-I-could-be-angry-I-would reaction. So it was for her own good, still she was thoroughly duped. It’s hilarious.
The third arc is what I’ll call the Society arc. Eugene Wrayburn is in society—and Mr. and Mrs. Boffin go into society (with Bella, on occasion)—and between them they provide most of the connecting points between this arc and the rest of the book. The characters of Society have ups and downs of their own (particularly the younger ones), and one couple among them, the Lammles, is an artistic contrast to John and Bella. Dickens likes to do this (witness Miss Wade in Little Dorrit), but I don’t think he always is successful in fitting it into the general scheme of his plot. In this case especially, the Lammles feel unnecessary, and the random people associated with them feel even more unnecessary. (They do advance the Bella—John plot a little, but not, in my opinion, in a way that justifies all the detail lavished on them.)
It’s really hard to decide what score to give Our Mutual Friend. John and Bella, Mr. Wilfer, and the Boffins together create some of my favorite ever of Dickens’ scenes and plot points. Bella, who starts off pretty awful, grows into a thoroughly enjoyable character. John isn’t quite as cool as he should be, but is still likable, Mr. Wilfer is wonderful, and the Boffins are lots of fun to read about. Once you realize what Mr. Boffin is up to, all the scenes of him pretending to be miserly are outrageously funny (or were to me, anyhow!).
By contrast, the other sides of the plot drag—all I wanted as I read was to get back to the Boffins and Bella! The triangle with Lizzie was especially a pain (partly because it was pretty dark) and many of the society chapters were tedious.
But in the end, I love Bella and the Boffins too much to give it less than 7/10.
The Point
I take it the main point of Our Mutual Friend is: don’t sell yourself, your friends, or your family for riches. Bella learns this when she sees (apparently) Mr. Boffin doing it. Eugene Wrayburn also learns it, though more from the angle of—don’t do it even if it’s what “society” expects of you. The Lammles tried it, and lead a miserable life.
I don’t really have any critiques to make on the moral of the novel. It’s well chosen, well illustrated, and flows naturally from the story.
9/10
The Style
Dickens’ style of writing is well known and unique. He’s literary in his choice of words and a little long-winded, though never without a purpose. Reading him requires a fair amount of concentration, but this helps draw you into the story.
In my opinion, there is almost always more shade than light in the pictures Dickens paints. His style, and a certain grotesque touch to his secondary characters, makes me always think of dark streets, dirty walls, heavy colorless skies, and so forth whenever I call a Dickens scene to mind. Our Mutual Friend is the Dickens novel with least of these associations for me, and the Bella—John arc is probably the lightest of Dickens’ plots. Bella doesn’t go through any permanent suffering (unless you count her disagreeable mother and snarky sister), and John’s is all over before the book begins. So they both have a very happy ending, unlike the usual chastened happiness that’s about as likely to make you cry as smile. I like this, though the contrast makes me less appreciative of Lizzie’s arc (whereas, if it had been in a different Dickens book, I’d probably have enjoyed it).
Anyways, back to the style; it’s smooth, but not easy to read. Skillful, but not the kind of skill that makes you amazed at how simple it is. I admire Dickens’ style, but wouldn’t want to write like that myself.
6/10
Conclusion
7(7.3)/10
I loved the main plot of Our Mutual Friend, but the side plots felt like so many weeds to wade through in order to get back to Bella and the Boffins. However, the moral of the book—to keep wealth in perspective, never to value it above love and proper respect for our fellowmen—is well taken and smoothly integrated.
Dickens’ style doesn’t make for easy or mindless reading, by any means, but it’s interesting and educational in itself. The book is worth reading, and although it’s too long and has too many slow sections for me to read the whole book over and over again, there are certainly scenes I will come back to!
Our Mutual Friend is available for free as an ebook on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/883
It’s also available as an audiobook: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9719
Have any questions about this book or an opinion of your own to share? Let me know in the comment section below!
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Geneva D 
What do you think?