John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

Complete and unabridged. Dickens exposes the corrupting power of money in his last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend, with its expansive cast of characters and interweaving plots. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an afterword by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley and original illustrations by Marcus Stone. John Harmon made his fortune collecting 'dust'. On his death his estranged son is due to inherit his wealth on the condition that he marry Bella Wilfer, a young woman who he has never even met. But when his son is presumed dead, John's riches pass to his servants Mr. and Mrs. Boffin and they in turn take Bella into their own home. They hire a secretive young man, John Rokesmith, to be Mr. Boffin's secretary - but what is this man's real identity and what is his interest in Bella?

John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Scavengers, social-climbers, lawyers and teachers, a money-lender and a dolls-dressmaker, men and women both honest and villainous, will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

'The great poet of the city. He was created by London' Peter Ackroyd Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance - Old Harmon's profitable dust heaps - and its legatees: young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satire, Dickens portrays a dark, macabre London, inhabited by such disparate characters as Gaffer Hexam, scavenging the river for corpses; enchanting, mercenary Bella Wilfer; the social-climbing Veneerings; and the unscrupulous street-trader Silas Wegg. Dickens's last completed novel is richly symbolic in its vision of death and renewal in a city dominated by the fetid Thames, and of the corrupting power of money.

In his last completed novel, published in 1864-5, Dickens confirmed his reputation as a story-teller of genius while extending the sphere of his imagination to new worlds. Like all Dickens' novels, Our Mutual Friend weaves together many stories, uniting them in the bizarre symbolism of the wealth which derives from a rubbish tip. With all the energy of his earlier novels, this one has an extra resonance and depth of shade.

Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.

As the boat moved silently over the water, the thing at the end of the rope always followed. Sometimes it came near the boat and sometimes it pulled away like something alive. As it moved through the water, changes seemed to pass over the dead man's face. For the thing that followed at the end of the rope was the body of a drowned man. At the inquest the dead man was identified as Mr. John Harmon, who had recently returned from abroad. John Harmon had not been drowned, but murdered. But how had he died and who had killed him?

John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens' last novel and one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens' last novel and one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

"Our Mutual Friend", Dickens last novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through...

"Our Mutual Friend", Dickens last novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through...

John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens' last novel and one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth,

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens' last novel and one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man and his unclaimed riches. Social-climbers, lawyers, teachers, a money-lender, men and women both honest and villainous will all become embroiled in this tale of love and obsession, death and rebirth,