Are generations of high school students wrong in thinking that Charles Dickens is one of the most boring writers ever to write what in many cases amounts to soap operas for money? An answer to this depends on what we mean by "boring"...
If we mean "predictable," then the answer is: Yes. Every Dickens novel (excepting Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities) will end with a solution to whatever problems exist. Every character who enters a novel evil or weak-willed will finish it evil or weak-willed and every character who enters a novel virtuous will not finish it any less virtuous. Every name will be both grotseque and appropriate. But if by "boring" we mean that the novel will actually be a chore to read, then in most cases generations of high school students are wrong. In the case of Our Mutual Friend, Dickens's last and arguably best book, the students are quite wrong indeed.
The Basics: Our Mutual Friend
The plot of Our Mutual Friend is ultimately simple, outwardly complex: capitalist heir John Harmon, en route to claiming his inheritance by submitting to an arranged marriage with Bella Wilfer (whom he has never met), is apparently drowned. In his seeming absence, control of the Harmon fortunes reverts to the "Golden Dustman": Nicodemus "Noddy" Boffin, a virtuous simpleton spectacularly ill-equipped to handle the financial empire that has washed up at his feet.
Of course, various forces begin mustering to rid Boffin of his windfall, among them a one-legged pamphlet salesman, a taxidermist, and a sinister couple who initially intend, through marriage, to swindle one another out of a fortune and discover, to their horror, that both are equally penniless.
The plot of Our Mutual Friend is ultimately simple, outwardly complex: capitalist heir John Harmon, en route to claiming his inheritance by submitting to an arranged marriage with Bella Wilfer (whom he has never met), is apparently drowned. In his seeming absence, control of the Harmon fortunes reverts to the "Golden Dustman": Nicodemus "Noddy" Boffin, a virtuous simpleton spectacularly ill-equipped to handle the financial empire that has washed up at his feet.
Of course, various forces begin mustering to rid Boffin of his windfall, among them a one-legged pamphlet salesman, a taxidermist, and a sinister couple who initially intend, through marriage, to swindle one another out of a fortune and discover, to their horror, that both are equally penniless.
Making the Parts Into a Whole: Our Mutual Friend
In Our Mutual Friend, there are numerous subplot, which range across all levels of society. It's a wealth of material that a lesser writer than Dickens might have turned into an indecipherable mess. By this late phase in his career, however, Dickens is more than capable of drawing the necessary lines between each social world and group of characters, bringing all of the parts together to form a whole as complicated as the network of factories that dominate the earlier Hard Times. Plot point moves to plot point smoothly, and the sudden coming together of social worlds that initially seemed hopelessly disparate remains one of the strongest elements of the novel.
Another high point of Our Mutual Friend, and possibly of Dickens's career as a whole, are the cramped quarters of evil that litter the world of the book.
In Our Mutual Friend, there are numerous subplot, which range across all levels of society. It's a wealth of material that a lesser writer than Dickens might have turned into an indecipherable mess. By this late phase in his career, however, Dickens is more than capable of drawing the necessary lines between each social world and group of characters, bringing all of the parts together to form a whole as complicated as the network of factories that dominate the earlier Hard Times. Plot point moves to plot point smoothly, and the sudden coming together of social worlds that initially seemed hopelessly disparate remains one of the strongest elements of the novel.
Another high point of Our Mutual Friend, and possibly of Dickens's career as a whole, are the cramped quarters of evil that litter the world of the book.
Out of the Dark & Dank: Our Mutual Friend
Particularly effective are the wharves and rivers that form the hidden digestive system of the novel (they swallow up Harmon and excrete the evils of Rogue Riderhood, Bradley Headstone, and Silas Wegg). Also, the cramped quarters, creaking motion, and sense of endless clutter, mildew and rot are all coldly evoked in some of Dickens's finest descriptive passages--moving not in the sense of being emotionally powerful (though they are), but in that these places literally move; they vibrate with breath. From Rogue Riderhood's "Leaving-Shop":
"The background, composed of handkerchiefs, coats, shirts, hats, and other old articles 'On Leaving,' had a general dim resemblance to human listeners; especially where a shiny black sou'wester suit and hat hung, looking very like a clumsy mariner with his back to the company, who was so curious to overhear, that he paused for the purpose with his coat half pulled on, and his shoulders up to his ears in the uncompleted action."
Particularly effective are the wharves and rivers that form the hidden digestive system of the novel (they swallow up Harmon and excrete the evils of Rogue Riderhood, Bradley Headstone, and Silas Wegg). Also, the cramped quarters, creaking motion, and sense of endless clutter, mildew and rot are all coldly evoked in some of Dickens's finest descriptive passages--moving not in the sense of being emotionally powerful (though they are), but in that these places literally move; they vibrate with breath. From Rogue Riderhood's "Leaving-Shop":
"The background, composed of handkerchiefs, coats, shirts, hats, and other old articles 'On Leaving,' had a general dim resemblance to human listeners; especially where a shiny black sou'wester suit and hat hung, looking very like a clumsy mariner with his back to the company, who was so curious to overhear, that he paused for the purpose with his coat half pulled on, and his shoulders up to his ears in the uncompleted action."
