Our Mutual Friend Readalong

That’s back to normal now!

Your last few posts haven’t shown in the same colour as the OP piggy

Thanks piggy
I've also read Once Upon A River (can't say I was impressed with it) but you're right about the cross overs.

I lot of cross over with your notes there Ladybird, spot on to point out that this months chapters 4/5 have a lot in common with the Twemlow chapters - I don't like them either. Good point about whether the 'Rokesmith's' marriage is legal!

So true Piggy being a multi millionaire whilst living like a pauper is a pretty big lie to have at the heart of your marriage

It's been all about War & Peace this month for me so my notes are shorter you'll be relieved to hear!

Chapter one:
Eugene once again reveals his foolhardiness in taunting the hardened criminal Riderhood, suggesting he is ripe for deportation or the gallows, as he passes his lock. He really does seem to think he is immortal!
We soon discover his real cause for concern however is bringing up the rear, Headstone is hot on his tail.

Chapter 2:
Nice to see the Lammels put firmly in their place by Boffin they make a cool £100 out of their interfering but Boffin wants nothing more to do with them.
How does he know they’re wrong ‘uns? Surely it’s only Twemlow who Mrs Lammel has opened up to?
Does this mark the start of an awakening and rehabilitation of Boffin as a noble and good character?

Chapter 3:
Sloppy puts in another appearance only for Wegg to insist he is sacked and sent away. I hope he gets a happy ever after after being dragged from pillar to post and then summarily dismissed and tossed back onto the streets.
Wegg reveals himself to be thoroughly despicable in his treatment of Boffin, revelling in the power he now has over him. I look forward to him getting his comeuppance!

Chapters 4/5
Bella and Rokesmith are married and in quick order Bella is with child. I enjoy some of the comedic elements of these vignettes but generally find these sentimental chapters to be my least favourite, they’re so twee.

Chapter 6:
Eugene tracks down Lizzie and can sense, despite her protestations, that she is attracted to him. She begs him to leave her alone so he doesn’t weaken her resolve and ruin her reputation.
He leaves saying he’ll do his best, but his musing run along the lines of “Lizzie, Lizzie can’t marry her but really want to screw her! Not sure I can do the decent thing and leave her alone!”
Maybe it’s all for the best then that Headstone appears out of nowhere and batters him before knocking him into the river to meet a watery end.
Luckily Lizzie has superhuman hearing and previous form for rescuing corpses from rivers and is able to drag him to shore and by a feat of superhuman strength manages to get his body, his features so badly mutilated as to be unrecognisable, to the nearest pub where a surgeon is sent for. I doubt it's the last we'll hear of him.
Phew, that was an action packed chapter!

Chapter 7:
In which we find Headstone has not bought himself peace with his actions, nor anything like it.
I really thought Charley Hexham was going to reveal himself to have had a Damascene conversion after he discovered that Eugene was most likely dead at his friend's hand, and realise how wrong he had been to reject and distress his poor sister over her refusal to marry his psychopathic mate. But no, he seems repentant only in so far as he regrets every having got involved with Headstone in the first place because suspicion for the murder may fall on him too. Hexham Junior resolves to have done with both his sister and his erstwhile friend so that he can increase his social standing, make a advantageous, if loveless, marriage and neither Headstone nor Lizzie can 'drag him down'. What a little shite he truly is, is there still time for a reconciliation with the sister who raised him from the gutter?

I finished this month’s chapters a couple of weeks ago, so here are the notes I made at the time:

I was glad to find that the Boffins saw right through the Lammles’ scheming and sent them packing. The way that Mr Boffin spared Georgiana Podsnap’s feelings by not revealing Mrs Lammle as a fraud to her, shows that he has not gone entirely to the bad and there is hope for his redemption.

The chapter featuring the wedding of Bella and Rokesmith was quite baffling in the manner of the early Twemlow chapters - what was going on with the peg-legged pensioner ‘Gruff and Glum’? The chief waiter’s presentation as the ‘Archbishop of Greenwich’ was a parallel to the equally obscure ‘Analytical Chemist’ in the Veneering sections. Bella’s realisation that money doesn’t buy you happiness has been rewarded with twee sentimental domestic bliss. Although if Rokesmith has married her under his pseudonym, are they really legally married??

I found it very satisfying that Lizzie used her boat-rowing skills, gained in recovering bodies from the Thames with her dad, to rescue Eugene from the river. I think her character conveys very well the vulnerability of working class girls to the selfish whims of more privileged men, in a sexual economy in which she could lose all her value by losing her ‘reputation.’

Charley Hexam’s selfishness was excellently conveyed in his confrontation with Bradley Headstone. He didn’t give two hoots for Lizzie or Eugene’s welfare, but was just worried about the impact of Headstone’s actions on his own reputation.

Yes I agree piggy! The older I get, the more sense Marx makes.

This was another bitty month wasn’t it, starting to wrap up the various plot strands.

Do you think we will see the Lammles again?

I’m also wondering if Eugene is really dead. I think if he was, it would have been made clearer? On the other hand I’ve missed key events before because Dickens was too euphemistic so who knows.

I liked the chapter in the Wilfer household after Bella’s wedding - very amusing. And Bella’s now pregnant - presumably this will prompt Rokesmith to reveal who he really is and claim his fortune? Wonder what Bella will make of being lied to?

@piggywaspushed after the waste was collected door to door, it was sorted, then the rags were sold on, often to be recycled into fibre and then rewoven into a cheap material called “shoddy” which was a bit like coarse felt apparently, and the bones were also sold on to be boiled down for grease, made into things like cutlery handles and turned into fertiliser. Pretty hard for me to imagine.

Vanity Fair is definitely on my 'must read' list @TramaDollface.
If you're after a Mumsnet book club try the 50 Book Challenge thread (or the 26 book one - but the 50 book one moves faster and there's no need to read that many books a year) or join us for the next read along.

Ooh Vanity Fair is marvellous

(Sorry to butt in, I didn’t know there was a book club on here)

How about Wilkie Collins? I’ve never read any of his. Or Thackeray? I have read Vanity Fair but it’s fab so I would be happy to read it again!

DD left this on my bed, and it probably is the level I should be aiming at ATM

I've recently really enjoyed Piranesi, so would be up for a Jonathan Strange read along. But my life circumstances are changing so I'm not too sure if I will have time to do another read-along this year. On that note, I don't know if I will have the headspace to read the February chapters over the next couple of weeks, but I should definitely have finished the whole of OMF by the end of March.