Our Mutual Friend

by Charles Dickens

First published 1864

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4.2(2,533)

A body recovered from the Thames is identified as John Harmon, the reluctant heir to a fortune made from London dust heaps. His apparent death transfers the inheritance to the kindly but socially inexperienced Boffins and releases Bella Wilfer from the marriage condition attached to the will. Yet Harmon has survived under another identity and quietly enters the Boffins’ household to discover how wealth has changed those around him.

Around this mystery, Dickens connects river workers, lawyers, teachers, speculators and fashionable society in a study of money, identity and social performance. The Thames and the refuse heaps become symbols of a Victorian city that repeatedly turns waste into profit and people into commodities, while love and loyalty offer limited resistance to corruption.