Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di Il nostro comune amico
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Il nostro comune amico, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
A chi è rivolto
You will love this book if you enjoy big Victorian stories with a mystery at the center, sharp comic portraits of the rich, and tender scenes about people who are poor and brave.
Che cos’è questo libro
What do you do when you find a drowned man in the Thames at dusk? Gaffer Hexam checks the pockets and counts the coins. His daughter Lizzie sits at the oars and cannot bear to look.
Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend is built on a fortune made from dust, the heaps of rubbish a London contractor sold for profit. His will leaves the wealth to a son long abroad, if the son marries a girl he has never met.
In questo riassunto
- 1A river scavenger and his daughter at duskFree
- 2A dinner party hears the story of an heir
- 3The police, a stranger and the Hexam home
- 4The Wilfers and a girl who wants money
- 5The Boffins, the Bower and the man with a wooden leg
- 6A father found dead and a girl who leaves
- 7A schoolmaster, a barrister and a dolls' dressmaker
- 8Money as a game for swindlers and snobs
- 9Wealth tests the heart of Bella and the Golden Dustman
- 10How the story is told and what the dust means
Punto chiave 1 di 10
A river scavenger and his daughter at dusk
The novel opens on the Thames as an autumn evening closes. A dirty boat carries a rough man with graying hair and a dark-haired girl of nineteen or twenty. She rows with practiced ease, and he watches the water like a hunter.
The man is Gaffer Hexam, and the girl is his daughter Lizzie. He searches the river for bodies and lives on what he finds in their pockets.
Lizzie hates the river and shivers at the water that feeds her. Her father calls it her best friend, since it gave them fire, a basket and a cradle. Another boat creeps alongside, rowed by Rogue Riderhood, once Gaffer's partner, and Gaffer threatens him with a boat hook. Gaffer has his own code. A dead man cannot use money, but robbing a living man is a real crime.
The story begins at the river, where money and death are never far apart.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Go deeper: the whole of Il nostro comune amico
About 22 h 10 min to read.Inizia 90 giorni gratisPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Who’s who
- Lizzie Hexam
- A brave river-born girl who rows her father's boat, loves her brother and longs for learning and a better life.
- Gaffer Hexam
- Lizzie's father, a rough river scavenger who lives on what he takes from drowned bodies and keeps his own harsh code.
- Bella Wilfer
- A pretty, spoiled girl named in a strange will who wants money badly and learns hard lessons about herself.
- John Rokesmith
- A shy, watchful lodger and then secretary to the Boffins who hides a purpose and admires Bella from a distance.
- Mr and Mrs Boffin
- A kind, simple old couple who inherit the dust fortune and want to do right by those around them.
- Eugene Wrayburn
- A clever, idle barrister who treats life as a joke and takes a careless interest in Lizzie.
- Bradley Headstone
- A strict schoolmaster who masters facts but not his own feelings, and who burns with jealousy over Lizzie.
- Jenny Wren
- A small, sharp-tongued dolls' dressmaker who sees through everyone and fiercely guards her friend Lizzie.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 305,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 21 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Il nostro comune amico
What is Our Mutual Friend about?
It follows a fortune made from London dust heaps, a young heir said to be drowned in the Thames, and the people who gather around the money, including river scavengers, a spoiled beauty and a jealous schoolmaster.
Who is the mutual friend in Our Mutual Friend?
The phrase is used in the book in a way that points to a go-between known to several characters. Readers often find its full meaning clearer once they meet the Boffins and their secretary.
What does the dust mean in Our Mutual Friend?
Dust stands for the rubbish of the city that turns into wealth. The dust mounds show how fortunes can come from what others throw away, and how money can corrupt or free the people who own it.
Is Our Mutual Friend a true story and when was it written?
It is fiction, but it draws on the real London of the 1860s, its river, slums, courts and dinner tables. Dickens published it in monthly parts in that decade, and he died in 1870.
Is Our Mutual Friend worth reading?
Yes is not needed to say, it offers a lively mystery, a large cast of memorable characters, a love story and sharp comedy about snobbery and money, all told in a warm and vivid voice.
Cite this edition
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/our-mutual-friend.
Dickens, C. (2026). Our mutual friend. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/our-mutual-friend (Original work published 1864)
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/our-mutual-friend.
@book{dickens2026our,
author = {Dickens, Charles},
title = {Our Mutual Friend},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/our-mutual-friend},
note = {First published 1864}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Il nostro comune amico, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
