Our Mutual Friend

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

A sinister masterpiece, Our Mutual Friend was Dickens' last completed novel. It is perhaps his ultimate vision of a dark, macabre London and the corrupting power of money.

Opening with a father and daughter scavenging for corpses on the Thames, the chilling tale unfolds around drownings, disguises and doubles, violence, murder, and triumphant love. Young John Harmon, presumed killed on his return home to England, is very much alive. The heir to a dust merchant's fortune, he goes to work under an assumed name for his father's current heirs, the amiable, elderly Boffins, who are about to be blackmailed by the unscrupulous one-legged Wegg.

So begins the intrigue in a novel that is quintessentially Dickensian in flavor, in its grotesque caricatures, its rich symbolism, and the astonishing realism of its heroine, Bella Wilfer, among Dickens' most splendid female characters.

(P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.

kindled fresh appreciation for Dickens

I downloaded this only because it was on sale and I was out of novels and credits; I had developed dislike for Dickens, probably due to too much time spent as a student and teacher on Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, but I fell in love with Dickens again by hour two of "Our Mutual Friend." Great narration adds to his delightful description, humour, and irony; Whitfield/Vance navigates the prose so that it flows like music and makes the unique characters (and caricatures) live. A couple of the clever conversation exchanges between Eugene and Mortimer are worthy of Shakespeare. And of course, there are occasional scenes of pathos among the innocent poor (Dickens could overdo it), but sentimentalism is minimal compared to other of his tales. Dickens also redeems himself a bit from earlier anti-Semitism with sympathetic Jewish characters. All and all, this is a delightful listen from start to finish.

There is a tiny editing problem--at least a dozen times a sentence or phrase is repeated--but that detracts little from the overall listen.

Beautiful.

It is Dickens at his word-crafting finest. Every aspect of this novel is impressive. The plots and intrigues are well executed, the characters have purpose and depth, the human insights are subtle yet powerful, the scenes and stories are moving, and above it all Dickens's linguistic touch is at its best.

The reader is excellent, too. He enjoys the language, never stumbles over it, always stays in character. Perfectly executed.

Not much else to say. I'm surprised this novel isn't as well known as Dickens's other great achievements.

The summary on Audible should be rewritten, though. It gives away most of the book all at once. Don't read it if you haven't yet, just get the book and enjoy.

Enjoyed on my second try

I tried to listen to this audiobook twice. The first time I was distracted and could not follow the story. There are a lot of characters and there is a lot going on. I gave up.

I tried again on vacation when I could concentrate and listen in long bursts. The book was great the second time.

Lastly, the narrator does a great job.

Great book poor editing

Wonderful book very well read. Sadly more than a dozen re-reads were not edited out.

Classic Dickens, Extremely Well Read

This is a great story whether read, listened to, or watched on BBC version. I have done all three and never tire of the story. The characters are at times caricatures (as always in Dickens), but always bring to mind people we have known. Reading Dickens is like reading a manual on human nature and foibles. This is one of the author's best works, in my opinion. You will love and hate these characters.
The narration is superb and well-fitted for this book.

Pure Dickens

Characters are memorable in a very involved storyline that is partly implausible and overdrawn. The performance by Simon Vance is wonderful. He does more unique voices than any other narrator.

Great book - poor edits

Simon Vance is an outstanding narrator but this version has dozens of rereads that were not edited out. I am astonished this made it through quality assurance.

Right up there with "A Tale of Two Cities"

This was Dickens' last finished novel, and he was at the height of his powers. The plot deals with the death of an heir to a fortune, and the effects of this fortune being settled upon a working-class couple. Along the way we have a couple of love stories, greed, jealousy, mistaken identity and murder. The threads of the plot are woven together beautifully and the characters are very much alive. I didn't want the book to end.

Simon Vance, as usual, does a superb job with the narration. His reading of the characters brings them to marvelous life. There is plenty of humor in the book, and Vance presents it with exactly the right touch of dryness. And his reading of the darker parts of the novel is extremely effective and affecting. I think this is one of his best narrations.

On to the next Dickens/Vance audiobook! Perhaps "Little Dorrit."

Trenchant Social Satire by Dickens

As he aged, Charles Dickens sharped his skill as a satirist. In his last book, Our Mutual Friend, he displays a skill that will probably never be surpassed in the English language. He skewers Victorian hypocrisy mercilessly—and being Dickens, gets away with it. Anyone else would have ended up in The Tower.

The British have always excelled at making fools of themselves, and the book’s characters have done this brilliantly. The narrator for the audio book, Robert Whitfield, is also brilliant; he knows how to speak the English Language.

The Victorians loved to make fun of themselves in a light-hearted manner, such as in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. This was one of their finer virtues. We Americans, by contrast, are an inferior lot. We never make fun of ourselves in a light-hearted way, but prefer self-righteousness. We take ourselves much too seriously.

Come to think of it Mencken might be an exception, or even the economist John Kenneth Galbraith; but I can’t think of any contemporary examples. We have lost our sense of humor—and that is a dark matter indeed.

Classic Dickens, Well Read

I was unfamiliar with this Dickens book, but thoroughly enjoyed it. The narrator is great. Editor could have been better (several repeated lines or phrases that should have been eliminated). But the story is classic Dickens (I sure enjoy his phrasing) and the narrator's rendering has such a flow that far surpassed some other Dickens audiobooks I've heard in the past. Wegg sounded just as smarmy as he should have (rather Uriah Heep-ish) and Mr. Boffin seemed a genuine, right jolly old fellow. An enjoyable listen, and of course long enough to make friends of the characters and not feel the visit was cut unnecessarily short.