Summary
Summary of Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 21 h 25 min17 h fast, 25 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 305,600 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1864by Charles Dickens
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
The river joins money and death
At dusk on the Thames, Lizzie Hexam rows while her father Gaffer searches the water for bodies. He lives on the money he finds in their pockets. To him, the river provides for his family; to Lizzie, it is something to fear and hate.
Gaffer draws his own moral line: taking from the dead is acceptable, but robbing the living is a crime. Their boat introduces a world where survival depends on what others lose, and where money and death travel together.
Key idea 2
A fortune comes with a condition
In the Veneerings' gleaming house, dinner guests listen as Mortimer Lightwood tells the story of the Harmon fortune.
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Key idea 3
Bella wants more than poverty offers
Bella Wilfer is the girl named in Harmon's will.
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Key idea 4
The fortune draws people together
The Harmon wealth passes to the Boffins, the servants who remained faithful to the old contractor.
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Key idea 5
Poverty threatens the bonds of family
Rogue Riderhood accuses Gaffer Hexam of murder and seeks the reward.
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Key idea 6
Jealousy turns attention into danger
Lizzie finds a home with Jenny Wren, a dolls' dressmaker whose sharp understanding reaches beyond what she says.
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Key idea 7
Respectability can hide a scheme
The Lammles marry because each believes the other has money.
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Key idea 8
Bella begins to question wealth
Bella enjoys the Boffins' luxury and begins to look down on her father's poor home, though her tenderness toward him remains.
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Key idea 9
A city reveals what money buys
A fortune made from rubbish links people who seem to belong to separate worlds.
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Who it’s for
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.
What this book is
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 this summary
- 1The river joins money and deathFree
- 2A fortune comes with a condition
- 3Bella wants more than poverty offers
- 4The fortune draws people together
- 5Poverty threatens the bonds of family
- 6Jealousy turns attention into danger
- 7Respectability can hide a scheme
- 8Bella begins to question wealth
- 9A city reveals what money buys
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 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What condition does the Harmon inheritance place on the son?
Right. “But the son must marry a girl who was a small child when the will was made.”Not quite. “But the son must marry a girl who was a small child when the will was made.”
Why does Bella become worried as Mr Boffin changes?
Right. “Bella watches him and fears that the same thing could happen to her.”Not quite. “Bella watches him and fears that the same thing could happen to her.”
How does Eugene treat Headstone's jealousy?
Right. “He wanders London at night and leads the schoolmaster on pointless chases.”Not quite. “He wanders London at night and leads the schoolmaster on pointless chases.”
Go deeper: the whole of Our Mutual Friend
About 22 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, 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 Our Mutual Friend
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}
}
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