Our Mutual Friend Readalong

I agree about this one being darker. DC had such a naive cheerfulness about it, but this one is much more cynical about people.

I'm still at the slightly befuddled with all the characters stage, but very much enjoying the language.

Having read David Copperfield so recently, it's interesting to flip over to a much later book and see how Dickens's themes and preoccupations had changed. The humour's still there but it's already a much, much darker and more hard-bitten piece of writing. The Boffins are the 'goodies' so far, and really enjoyable, but there are far more characters on the make...people like the Veneerings - even the name damns them for their surface glitter and worthlessness - and all their awful dinner-party guests. It sounds as though Dickens had sat through far too many of those dinners himself (as I'm sure he had, by then) and knew those people all too well.

Oh, and I aso liked the Lammies each being fortune-hunters and feeling completely cheesed off at ending up with someone equally poor.

It's going to be interesting to see whether they join forces to pursue making money .. and might they actually end up liking each other?

I did attempt the first few Chapters last year during a holiday and must say I didn’t remember any of them or get much out of it all, but enjoying it on this second pass already.

May I join in? I read this nearly 40 years ago and enjoyed it but would love to be reminded why

Me too MAL! It was my favourite out of six or seven Dickens novels I read so I'm really enjoying the opportunity to rediscover it.

I agree with those who felt a bit flummoxed by chapter 2, especially the Analytical(?) but I'm loving Silas Wegg and the Boffins. Silas is obviously a bit of a chancer, but a really interesting character. I liked him inventing personalities for everyone in the big house near his stall. Especially "Uncle Parker" - excellent name!

Really enjoyed chapter 9 dealing with the possible "orphan swarms" and the likeable Milveys: "I doubt , Frank, if Mrs Boffin wants an orphan quite nineteen, who drives a cart and waters the roads." So funny.

I'm enjoying it up to now.

Agree that the Boffins are the most engaging characters so far. I already feel quite invested in them. I wonder whether Dickens is toying with us by interspersing their story with the slightly dry Veneerings shenanigans?

I always felt a bit intimidated by Dickens so tackling this in manageable chunks feels much more doable.

@ piggy. I also really liked this bit where Mrs Boffin reclined on her sofa: as one who would be part of the audience if she found she could, and would go to sleep if she found she couldn’t

I identify with that.

Yes Twemlow is a dinner guest - “part of the furniture” at every occasion but not sure quite where he fits in the social pecking order. The other guests always manage to leapfrog him in this respect, so he is extended like a dining table to accommodate them, rather than getting closer in acquaintance to the host. My favourite bit was when another dinner guest mistook him for the host, Veneering, but by the end of the evening said dinner guest was godfather to Veneering’s child, leaving him none the wiser again.

InmyOwnParticularIdiom that’s a great point about Pratchett, well observed. It’s even true of the slightly oddball metaphorical riffs and jokes, as in the above mentioned Twemlow/dining table stuff. It reminds me of when the librarian was transformed into an armchair and later on when he changed back someone said “he still looks a bit green around the antimacassar”.

After the torture of the first two chapters, I found I really got into it and could have read on after the end of chapter 10. It's much funnier than I was expecting and most scenes involving Mr Boffin make me chuckle. My favourite moment so far was when Silas Wegg didn't know the difference between the Russian and Roman empires so made out it was something not to be mentioned in front of Mrs Boffin... I also liked the bit where the Boffins visited the vicar to enquire after an orphan, and the vicar was sure he must have one somewhere 'in stock', as it were.

I haven't read Dickens since a teenager, and a slightly off-the-wall thought that struck me was the influence on later writers like Terry Pratchett. I.e. Ankh-Morpork is a fantastical version of Victorian London teaming with comic characters with intertwining plot strands which connect to each other in ways that are not clear at first.

I think my approach to keeping the storyline in mind and not forgetting who everyone is each month will be to read 20-30 pages a week, rather than save it all up for the end of the month (famous last words).

I was just laughing at your comment on the 50 Bookers' new thread Piggy

I'm really enjoying it so far and the plot is coming back to me after the many years since I last read it - I'd been afraid that I wouldn't find it as good as I remembered but thankfully that's not the case.

I'm reading a fairly old Penguin edition which has useful notes, and one that particularly struck me was that very little Dickens wrote by this late stage in his career was unconnected to current events (after all, he'd been a crusading magazine editor for years, taking up all sorts of causes). That really brings an extra dimension to the book for me - it's a highly contemporary novel.

The table isnt a person, Twemlow is a man The Veneerings barely know who they frequently invite for dinners. The table stuff is that the more guests they are the more they have to extend the table and Twemlow is pushed further from the hosts.

He is constantly perplexed that none of the guests seem to know the hosts and no one knows how they came to know them.

I'm torn between enjoying OMF in small doses and thinking that I need to get properly into it so that I get into the flow.

Okay, now we have established that the table is in fact a person, what or who is the Analytical Chemist? I have a feeling he is some kind of butler, is that right?

I found it all quite torturous

Still on board, though viewing it as more of a project/tick a box job now than an enjoyable read

Like someone else said upthread all we seem to have at the moment is a collection of different people and events and we’re waiting to see how they all link up. So far I’m just confused so hopefully all will become clear soon!

Sorry, that should have said realised not released. Although I did also feel quite "released" when I finished this chapter .

Harlan yes, my heart sank a bit when I released we were back with the Veneerings for Chapter 10. I guess their function in the scheme of the book will eventually become clear.

I've read the first ten chapters. I was going great guns to the end of chapter 9, then realised 10 was another Twemlow chapter, which I really dislike as I find the prose hard to follow and the characters really unsympathetic. I think I'll have to just blast through future Twemlow episodes or else I'll get bogged down.

Having said that, the rest is great fun. Love Silas Wegg, though not sure Dickens would get away with so many wooden leg jokes these days. Also loved the visit of the poor, good-hearted Boffins to the clergyman in search of a spare orphan.

The solicitor and the barrister are funny, too - I'm in the same business and in some ways nothing much has changed!