Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend is a satiric classic about the appeal and hazard of money that centres around the inheritance of a dust heap where the affluent put their waste. When the death of John Harmon, the dust heap's projected successor, is discovered in the Thames, riches unexpectedly shift hands, propelling "Noddy" Boffin, a low-born but benevolent clerk, to new heights as "the Golden Dustman." Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens's final complete novel, includes the main themes of his earlier works: the pretensions of the wealthy, the ingenuity of the ambitious poor, and the unfailing ability of wealth to corrupt those who seek it. This novel is one of Dickens' most complex-and satisfying-novels, with a colourful cast of characters and multiple subplots.