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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens?

25 replies

LivBonas · 02/04/2018 15:00

DD has to read this as part of her university course. I've just looked at the blurb and I think it sounds quite good, wondering whether I should give it a go? Is it easy to follow (I'm quite worried about not understanding it!) I last read Dickens and "serious" books when I did my A Level many moons ago.

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tortelliniforever · 02/04/2018 15:02

I haven't read it but I dont think Dickens is ever hard to follow.

Original poster

LivBonas · 02/04/2018 15:05

Okay, I will definitely give it a go then. At least if I don't understand some parts, I can always ask DD!

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HappydaysArehere · 03/04/2018 09:47

Try to avoid small print. Editions of Dickens are often off putting just because of this. For this reason I downloaded some on to my iPad. They were cheap or even free. If you have been used to modern books the style can slow you down for awhile but they are full of delightful humour and great stories. They were written in serial form so ordinary people could afford them so Dickens had to commit himself to a set number of editions. You will be doing yourself a favour by reading along with your daughter as it will be great to discuss it with her. My favourite Dickens is Great Expectations. Love it.

Original poster

LivBonas · 03/04/2018 13:53

DD had to get a specific Penguin Classics edition which has the smallest print! I will get my own copy, or read it on my iPad, as I don't much think my eyes are quite up to that tiny font!
I read Great Expectations in Upper Sixth for my exams Happydays, i know some people hate the books they study at school, but I still hold a fond place for Great Expectations.

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HappydaysArehere · 04/04/2018 10:08

Good for you LivBonas. Your daughter is lucky. Hope you get a good print. The books are quite long and small print I suppose is cheaper than bigger books. I even got John Forster’s biography of Dickens on my iPad (best friend of Dickens). At the time it was £2.99 and Waterstones offered to order one in for £25 or £75 ( the salesman rolled his eyes at that).

lucydogz · 04/04/2018 12:29

I love it. Not just the central plot but everything going on round it. Because it's one of his last books, the female protagonist is an improvement on his usual heroines as well.

Original poster

LivBonas · 04/04/2018 12:54

Thank you, I've started reading it today! Going well so far, and I'm getting into it 😊

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ErrolTheDragon · 04/04/2018 13:15

I read quite a lot of Dickens as a teen, precipitated by starting to watch a BBC serialisation of OMF (the 1976 one) and not wanting to wait a week for each instalment.

the female protagonist is an improvement on his usual heroines as well.

Not sure if you mean Bella or Lizzie, but yes either way.

lucydogz · 04/04/2018 13:18

I was thinking of Bella, but, as you say, true about Lizzie.

FetchezLaVache · 04/04/2018 13:19

I loved this - glad to hear you're enjoying it so far too, OP!

Daisydoesnt · 04/04/2018 20:48

Just seen this thread and glad you are enjoying it OP. I think it's a corker. If you do enjoy it, try Bleak House next. That and OMF are my favourites of Dickens.

lucydogz · 04/04/2018 22:13

I agree, Bleak House is great. Just remembering the Lammles from OMF - what great characters!
Can I recommend George Orwell's essay on Dickens?
link
Very few seem to know about it, but I think it's the best writing about Dickens that I know

BasementPeople · 05/04/2018 07:44

Wow, thanks for that link lucydogz! Fascinating.

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LivBonas · 05/04/2018 08:23

Thanks for that essay, I'll read it after I've finished OMF and I'll pass it on to DD, she'll be grateful that she's got some more wider reading now.

DD also has to read an essay/book by Dickens named The Uncommercial Traveller (I'm pretty sure that's the title, but correct me if I'm wrong!). I wonder, would that be available online? I only remembered that she has to read that as it appears in the note sections for OMF quite regularly.

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Original poster

LivBonas · 05/04/2018 08:27

I've found it on Project Gutenberg, so ignore my last post!

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Daisydoesnt · 05/04/2018 08:44

lucydogz thanks so much for the Orwell link - looks really interesting!

HappydaysArehere · 05/04/2018 09:18

Peter Ackroyd has written an excellent biography of Dickens. It is full of photos and fascinating insights into Dickens as a boy, man and family man. I have visited Dicken’s home in Doughty Street (will have to check spelling). Its near the Foundling museum in London. They have his writing desk there as well as so much else. Great for really feeling close to Dickens. Also, just dipping into John Forster and read his first hand recollections of Dickens and him walking down the Charing Cross Road and talking of his childhood. The blacking factory is just down the side of Charing Cross Station.

LassWiADelicateAir · 07/04/2018 09:15

One of my favourites. There was an excellent BBC adaptation a few years ago with Anna Friel as Bella , Keeley Hawes as Lizzy and David Morrisey as Bradley Headstone. I still think of all 3 of them as these characters whenever I see them.

lucydogz · 07/04/2018 10:04

It was, I agree. I keep on trying to remember who played the other male lead (also excellent).
The Bleak House adaptation with Diana Rigg was also great, until they changed the bloody ending.

LassWiADelicateAir · 07/04/2018 11:11

Steven McIntosh was John Rokesmith and one of the McGann brothers was Eugene Wrayburn.

BeatriceJoanna · 11/04/2018 13:16

The Bleak House adaptation with Diana Rigg was also great, until they changed the bloody ending.

How did they change it? I'm sure that I watched that version (Peter Vaughan as Tulkinghorn IIRC) but I can't remember it very well and I hadn't read the novel at that point.

lucydogz · 11/04/2018 14:38

you remember in the book that the older man who is the guardian of the young woman (who loves the young man) asks her to marry him and she says 'yes' out of duty? He then constructs a new house (called Bleak House) for them both. But surprise! when it's finished, he gives it to the young man and woman with his blessing. Dickens at his worst IMO.
In the adaptation, he just gives them his blessing and the house.
So, a much better ending, but not Dickens.
Anybody feel free to correct me on this, as it's so long ago that I've either read it or seen the adaptation. I remember watching it and thinking 'how are they going to do THAT'.

BeatriceJoanna · 11/04/2018 17:57

Thanks for the explanation but, oh blimey, I'm hazy on so much of BH. It must be at least twenty five years since I read it.

I'm going to have to read it again.

lucydogz · 11/04/2018 18:03

an interesting parallel with the bravura first paragraph of Bleak House, is the first paragraph of Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk.

Original poster

LivBonas · 11/04/2018 18:52

I've finished Our Mutual Friend today! Wow, what a book, I loved it so much and I'm so glad I decided to take on the challenge of reading it! I wish it hadn't ended, I want more of the Boffins, Lizzie, Bella, Eugene, Rokesmith and the wonderful Jenny Wren!
Perhaps I'll read Bleak House as well soon

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