37 h 7 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 37 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On the Thames at night, a body and a fortune draw strangers into the same dark current.
In Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, Gaffer Hexam and his daughter Lizzie search the river for bodies and valuables. Their work draws them into a mystery surrounding John Harmon, who returns to England to claim his father’s fortune. The inheritance comes with a condition: he must marry Bella Wilfer, a woman he has never met.
With that marriage apparently impossible, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin take Bella into their home. She longs for money, but affection and self-respect make competing claims. Meanwhile, Lizzie seeks safety and independence as Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone pursue her attention. Around them, London’s dinner guests, moneylenders, and struggling workers reveal what wealth can do to love and kindness.
What you’ll discover
- A fortune from refuse Enter a London where rubbish becomes wealth and people risk being treated as waste.
- Love under pressure Follow Bella as her hunger for money meets the demands of affection and self-respect.
- A dangerous rivalry Watch a restless lawyer and an intense schoolmaster turn their attention toward Lizzie.
- Jenny Wren’s sharp eye Meet a young doll’s dressmaker whose skilled hands and clear gaze expose adult pretensions.
- Comedy with a bite Find strange, memorable people in a society where money puts kindness and dignity to the test.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The river joins money and death
- A fortune comes with a condition
- Bella wants more than poverty offers
- The fortune draws people together
- Poverty threatens the bonds of family
- Jealousy turns attention into danger
- Respectability can hide a scheme
- Bella begins to question wealth
- A city reveals what money buys
Who’s who
- Lizzie HexamA brave river-born girl who rows her father's boat, loves her brother and longs for learning and a better life.
- Gaffer HexamLizzie's father, a rough river scavenger who lives on what he takes from drowned bodies and keeps his own harsh code.
- Bella WilferA pretty, spoiled girl named in a strange will who wants money badly and learns hard lessons about herself.
- John RokesmithA shy, watchful lodger and then secretary to the Boffins who hides a purpose and admires Bella from a distance.
- Mr and Mrs BoffinA kind, simple old couple who inherit the dust fortune and want to do right by those around them.
- Eugene WrayburnA clever, idle barrister who treats life as a joke and takes a careless interest in Lizzie.
- Bradley HeadstoneA strict schoolmaster who masters facts but not his own feelings, and who burns with jealousy over Lizzie.
- Jenny WrenA small, sharp-tongued dolls' dressmaker who sees through everyone and fiercely guards her friend Lizzie.
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Our Mutual Friend in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens · 1864
A river scavenger tows a drowned man home while London dinner guests hear of a missing heir.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to read20 languages
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“When people say Dickens exaggerates, it seems to me they can have no eyes and no ears.”
In short
What do you do when you find a drowned man in the Thames at dusk? Gaffer Hexam checks the pockets and counts the coins.
Our Mutual Friend at a glance
- 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
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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Details
- First published
- 1864
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 24 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
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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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.
The author
Charles Dickens
1812–1870 · English novelist
Charles Dickens was an English novelist born in Portsmouth in 1812. He lived in London and later at Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, where he died in 1870. His books include The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849–1850), and Great Expectations (1860–1861).
“Evil often stops with itself and dies with the person who does it; but Good never does.”
More by Charles Dickens
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