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Our Mutual Friend

Name: Our Mutual Friend
Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens · Public domain text

324,687 words · about 22 h 44 min to read

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The text of Our Mutual Friend comes from Project Gutenberg e-text #883. It is in English and public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg’s header and license text are removed, and RedLectern sets the text out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. More formats (EPUB, Kindle) · How RedLectern is built

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About this book

From Wikipedia

Our Mutual Friend, published in 1864–1865, is the fourteenth and final novel completed by English author Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, quoting the book's character Bella Wilfer, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article “Our Mutual Friend” (revision 1378868907), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Not written by RedLectern.

Author: Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Language: English
Subjects: Satire, London (England) › Fiction, Inheritance and succession › Fiction, Love stories, Poor families › Fiction, Social classes › Fiction
Length: 324,687 words · about 22 h 44 min
Sections: 69 reader sections · Table of contents
Audiobook: Listen free (LibriVox)
Source: Project Gutenberg #883

Contents (69)

Opening about 2 min
1. ON THE LOOK OUT about 8 min
2. THE MAN FROM SOMEWHERE about 19 min
3. ANOTHER MAN about 23 min
4. THE R. WILFER FAMILY about 20 min
5. BOFFIN’S BOWER about 28 min
6. CUT ADRIFT about 27 min
7. MR WEGG LOOKS AFTER HIMSELF about 15 min
8. MR BOFFIN IN CONSULTATION about 22 min
9. MR AND MRS BOFFIN IN CONSULTATION about 24 min
10. A MARRIAGE CONTRACT about 23 min
11. PODSNAPPERY about 26 min
12. THE SWEAT OF AN HONEST MAN’S BROW about 26 min
13. TRACKING THE BIRD OF PREY about 17 min
14. THE BIRD OF PREY BROUGHT DOWN about 14 min
15. TWO NEW SERVANTS about 24 min
16. MINDERS AND RE-MINDERS about 27 min
17. A DISMAL SWAMP about 8 min
1. OF AN EDUCATIONAL CHARACTER about 31 min
2. STILL EDUCATIONAL about 19 min
3. A PIECE OF WORK about 18 min
4. CUPID PROMPTED about 21 min
5. MERCURY PROMPTING about 24 min
6. A RIDDLE WITHOUT AN ANSWER about 22 min
7. IN WHICH A FRIENDLY MOVE IS ORIGINATED about 18 min
8. IN WHICH AN INNOCENT ELOPEMENT OCCURS about 28 min
9. IN WHICH THE ORPHAN MAKES HIS WILL about 14 min
10. A SUCCESSOR about 11 min
11. SOME AFFAIRS OF THE HEART about 20 min
12. MORE BIRDS OF PREY about 25 min
13. A SOLO AND A DUETT about 25 min
14. STRONG OF PURPOSE about 22 min
15. THE WHOLE CASE SO FAR about 28 min
16. AN ANNIVERSARY OCCASION about 20 min
1. LODGERS IN QUEER STREET about 21 min
2. A RESPECTED FRIEND IN A NEW ASPECT about 17 min
3. THE SAME RESPECTED FRIEND IN MORE ASPECTS THAN ONE about 10 min
4. A HAPPY RETURN OF THE DAY about 21 min
5. THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN FALLS INTO BAD COMPANY about 25 min
6. THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN FALLS INTO WORSE COMPANY about 25 min
7. THE FRIENDLY MOVE TAKES UP A STRONG POSITION about 20 min
8. THE END OF A LONG JOURNEY about 20 min
9. SOMEBODY BECOMES THE SUBJECT OF A PREDICTION about 28 min
10. SCOUTS OUT about 22 min
11. IN THE DARK about 16 min
12. MEANING MISCHIEF about 13 min
13. GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME, AND HANG HIM about 17 min
14. MR WEGG PREPARES A GRINDSTONE FOR MR BOFFIN’S NOSE about 21 min
15. THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN AT HIS WORST about 26 min
16. THE FEAST OF THE THREE HOBGOBLINS about 25 min
17. A SOCIAL CHORUS about 19 min
1. SETTING TRAPS about 20 min
2. THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN RISES A LITTLE about 16 min
3. THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN SINKS AGAIN about 17 min
4. A RUNAWAY MATCH about 17 min
5. CONCERNING THE MENDICANT’S BRIDE about 29 min
6. A CRY FOR HELP about 24 min
7. BETTER TO BE ABEL THAN CAIN about 19 min
8. A FEW GRAINS OF PEPPER about 18 min
9. TWO PLACES VACATED about 19 min
10. THE DOLLS’ DRESSMAKER DISCOVERS A WORD about 11 min
11. EFFECT IS GIVEN TO THE DOLLS’ DRESSMAKER’S DISCOVERY about 20 min
12. THE PASSING SHADOW about 23 min
13. SHOWING HOW THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN HELPED TO SCATTER DUST about 18 min
14. CHECKMATE TO THE FRIENDLY MOVE about 21 min
15. WHAT WAS CAUGHT IN THE TRAPS THAT WERE SET about 20 min
16. PERSONS AND THINGS IN GENERAL about 19 min
17. THE VOICE OF SOCIETY about 9 min
Postscript about 3 min

The opening of 1. ON THE LOOK OUT

In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.
The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned face, and a dark girl of nineteen or twenty, sufficiently like him to be recognizable as his daughter. The girl rowed, pulling a pair of sculls very easily; the man, with the rudder-lines slack in his hands, and his hands loose in his waistband, kept an eager look out.

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