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1745_16 | career. He also had a strong affiliation with NFL films. |
1745_17 | Gumbel's performance was the subject of criticism over his entire run because of his voice and a perceived lack of knowledge about the game. Gumbel stepped down as play-by-play announcer in April 2008, prior to the 2008 NFL season. He would be replaced on the NFL Network telecasts by Bob Papa.
Personal life
Gumbel raised two children with his wife, June, in semi-rural Waccabuc, north of New York City. In 2001, he divorced her to marry Hilary Quinlan. Around 2002, he shed 55 pounds of weight in seven months after he stepped on the scale to find out he was 240 pounds. In October 2009, he had surgery to remove a malignant tumor near one of his lungs. |
1745_18 | Awards
4 Emmy Awards
Frederick D. Patterson Award from the United Negro College Fund
Martin Luther King Award from the Congress of Racial Equality
Three NAACP Image Awards
Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Foreign Affairs work from the Overseas Press Club, September 1984
Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting
Peabody Award for his reporting in Vietnam
International Journalism Award from TransAfrica
Africa's Future Award from the U.S. Committee for UNICEF
Leadership Award from the African-American Institute
Best Morning TV News Interviewer, the Washington Journalism Review, 1986
National Association of Black Journalists, Journalist of the Year Award, 1993
Trumpet Award of the Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for outstanding broadcast journalism for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' (HBO), December 2005
References
External links |
1745_19 | "Is Bryant Gumbel a Racist?" – Howard Bloom's Sports Business News.com SBN's look at Bryant Gumbel
-the tiger woods of TV
on IMDB |
1745_20 | American television reporters and correspondents
American television sports announcers
1948 births
Living people
African-American journalists
African-American Catholics
African-American television hosts
African-American television personalities
American people of German-Jewish descent
American television hosts
American male journalists
Bates College alumni
CBS News people
Catholics from Louisiana
College basketball announcers in the United States
College football announcers
De La Salle Institute alumni
Sports Emmy Award winners
Olympic Games broadcasters
Golf writers and broadcasters
Television anchors from Los Angeles
Major League Baseball broadcasters
National Football League announcers
People from Chicago
People from New Orleans
People from Waccabuc, New York
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people |
1746_0 | Rüti Monastery () was a former Premonstratensian monastery, founded in 1206 and suppressed in 1525 on occasion of the Reformation in Zürich, situated in the municipality of Rüti in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. The monastery's church was the final resting place of the Counts of Toggenburg, among them Count Friedrich VII and 13 other members of the Toggenburg family, and other noble families. Between 1206 and 1525, the monastery comprised 14 incorporated churches and the owner of extensive lands and estates at 185 localities.
History |
1746_1 | In 1206 the estate for the monastery was given by Liutold IV, Count of Regensberg, and it was confirmed on 6 May 1219 by his brother, Eberhard, Archbishop of Salzburg. The church and rights were transferred by Rudolf I von Rapperswil and Diethelm of Toggenburg to the convent in 1229. On the upper Lake Zürich peninsula at Oberbollingen, a St. Nicholas Chapel is mentioned, where around 1229 a small Cistercian (later Premonstratensian) monastery was established by the Counts of Rapperswil. That nunnery is estimated to have been (administratively) part of the Rüti Monastery; in 1267 it was united with the nearby Mariazell Wurmsbach Abbey. |
1746_2 | Initially founded as a branch of the Premonstratensian Abbey in Churwalden, Rüti Monastery, commonly known as monastery of Saint Mary, was placed by the Bishop of Constance in 1230 to the Weissenau (Minderau) abbey and was part of the administrative district of Zirkaria Swabia. The construction of the monastery's cathedral started in 1214 and probably was finished in 1283. In 1286, for financial reason, the Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil had to sell her farm estate in Oberdürnten including the associated rights (in particular the lower courts) to the Rüti Monastery. But the House of Rapperswil also supported the Rüti Monastery in the following decades, so Johann's I son, Johann II, assigned an estate and all rights in the name of his younger siblings on 17 June 1340. |
1746_3 | The convent was generously endowed with money and goods by the aristocratic families in northeastern Switzerland, enabling it to buy the rights to parish churches and additional estates, among them in Aadorf by the Landenberg-Greifensee family in 1358, Bassersdorf, Dürnten, Elsau-Räterschen in 1398, Erlenbach, Eschenbach, Eschlikon, Fehraltorf, Fischenthal, Gossau, Hinwil, Hofstetten, Mönchaltorf, Neubrunn-Turbenthal, Rapperswil, Seegräben, Uster in 1438, Uznach, Wangen in der March in 1407, Wil-Dreibrunnen, Winterthur, Zollikerberg, Zollikon and Zürich. By gift, purchase and exchange, Rüti Monastery enlarged its ownership, concentrated in the early 15th century in Rüti (Ferrach and Oberdürnten), between Greifensee and Pfäffikersee and on the northeastern shore on so-called Obersee, the upper part of Zürichsee (Lake Zürich). Rüti was an important stage point along the Jakobsweg (Way of St. James) leading via Rapperswil and the wooden bridge at the Seedamm lake crossing to the |
1746_4 | Einsiedeln Abbey. |
1746_5 | A unique document is related to one of the members of the Rüti convent: On 5 December 1374 Bilgri von Kloten declared that he and his legitimate daughter Margret Bertschinger do not raise any claims to a land, sealed by the Vogt of Rapperswil.
In 1408 the Rüti village and the monastery came under the reign of the government of the city of Zürich as part of the so-called Herrschaft Grüningen. Among many other transfers of lands and goods, on 12 May 1433 Heini Murer von Grueningen and his wife Anna Keller confirmed the transfer of their lands on Lutzelnoew island for 100 Pfund Pfennig Zürcher Währung to the Abbot Johans and the convent of the Rüti Monastery, including numerous buildings and lands in the Herrschaft Grüningen, and the document confirmed also the couple's wish to be enrolled in the monastery's libri anniversariorum (German: Jahrzeitbuch). |
1746_6 | On 11 June 1443 marauders of the Old Swiss Confederacy plundered the monastery in the Old Zürich War, and the graves of Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg, among them the Count of Thierstein and other nobilities, were desecrated: . The devastation by the confederates met the monastery, materially and idealistic. The plundering of the region weakened the monastic manorial, and the desecration of the graves diminished the importance of the monastery as preferred burial place of the nobility. Memoria for the noble families remain largely intact during the Reformation in Zürich to the demolition of the Toggenburgerkapelle vault and partial new construction of the present Rüti Reformed Church in 1771.
Burials at Rüti Monastery |
1746_7 | On 29 November 1389, seven months after the Battle of Näfels, the abbot Bilgeri von Wagenberg moved about 100 bodies (in fact, their bones) of the Swiss-Austrian knights and soldiers, among them his brother Johann von Klingenberg, from the battle field and reburied them (most of them in a mass grave within the church) at Rüti Monastery. The members of the Toggenburg family were buried in the so-called Toggenburger Gruft, a burial vault where is as of today the entrance hall to the church. In addition, there was a large number of members of noble families/knights living nearby (Regensberg family excluded) and the families of the latter Amtsmann, the representatives of the city of Zürich between 1525 and 1789. Most of these gravestones are lost, destroyed – probably the ones of the nobilities in June 1443 by the Swiss troops in the Old Zürich War – or were re-used for buildings etc.
Counts of Toggenburg and Elisabeth von Mätsch |
1746_8 | The members of the Toggenburg family were buried in the so-called Toggenburger Gruft, a burial vault where is as of today the entrance hall to the church. On 23 April 1398 Count Donat von Toggenburg donated the church of Elsow as benefice for the new Allerheiligenaltar at the grave of the Toggenburg family, for the salvation of his daughter soul Menta von Toggenburg who died shortly before. |
1746_9 | Count Fridrich von Toggenburg, Herr zu Brettengow und Tafas donated to "his own and the salvation of his ancestor who were buried and he also expects to be buried" the church, rights and lands (Kirchwidem and Kirchensatz) in Wangen in der March, sealed by Fridrich and the knights Herman von Landenberg, Johans von Bonstetten from Ustra and Herman von der Hochenlandenberg on 21 January 1407. Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg died in 1436 and was buried probably in 1439 in a chapel, the so-called Toggenburger Kapelle (capella nova in latere monasterii de novo construxit) given by his noble wife, Countess Elisabeth von Toggenburg, née von Mätsch. On 5 September 1439 Elisabeth von Mätsch instigated a parsonage for the purpose of a daily Mass to Friedrich's and her own salvation, and for this purpose she bequeathed the monastery the amount of 1,300 Rheinische Gulden in gold and precious gems with ornaments (pretiosa ornamenta) to the Rüti Monastery where 14 members of the family were |
1746_10 | buried, and Countess Elisabeth probably lived in her late years. During her lifetime, Countess Elisabeth chose the priest who should hold the Mass in the new chapel of the monastery church. After her death, the foundation provided that the abbot and his convent hold a daily Mass and the usual periodicals, and that to the priest in charge was given board and lodge, as well as ten Rheinische Gulden at Christmas, financed by Elisabeth's foundation. The abbot of Einsiedeln had to pay attention to the fulfillment of these obligations and received in this way influence on the life of the Rüti convention respectively the convent had the hermit pin to pay fifty Florins for non-compliance. The document was draft by Eberhart Wüst von Rapperswil, the bistum's notar, on 5 September 1439 at 4 pm and confirmed by the abbot Johans and the members of the convent: Prior Johans Murer, Subprior Johans Schiltknecht, Heinrich Lörri, Erhard Baumgarter, Johans Berger, Heinrich Witenwiler, Ulrich Clinger and |
1746_11 | Ulrich Glarner. |
1746_12 | Elisabeth Countess of Toggenburg spent her last days in the Rüti Monastery, and she was for the last time mentioned on 20 June 1442 as its inhabitant: Elisabeth von Toggemburg...Graf Ffriedrich von Toggenburg and many of his ancestors haven chosen to be buried in the Rüti Monastery, which is why she has retreated there ("unser wesen gentzlich in dasselbe gotzhus got zuo dienende gezogen haben") and elected her tomb to be with her husband after her death... Her probably last will attested that she devised to the convent a specifically named jewel, namely 1300 Rheinische Gulden for...[as per 5 September 1439]... also a beaded ("berlachtes") chasuble, a gilded "tryenvass", the big monstrance with the mandrel the crown of Christ, the small monstrance with an attached closure ("Schlössli") heart-shaped, four chasubles made of velvet and damask, two silk decorative ceiling ("Golter") in green and red, and a silk tapestry ("uffschlag")... The document is sealed by Countess Elisabeth and |
1746_13 | knight Albrecht von Landemberg von Breitenlandemberg (Tösstal). |
1746_14 | On 11 June 1443 marauding troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy devastated the monastery Rüti and desecrated the bodies of the nobles, including Count Friedrich VII who they held responsible for the war with Zürich, and the scavengers pelted with the remains like schoolboys with snowballs.
Dissolution |
1746_15 | On 22 April 1525 Abbot Felix Klauser, with important documents, money and parts of the monastery's treasury, fled for refuge to the city of Rapperswil, where he died in a house belonging to the monastery in early 1530. On 17 June 1525, following the Reformation in Zürich, the monastery was secularized; three of the monks converted to Protestantism and died in the Battle of Kappel, three remained in Rüti, and Sebastian Hegner, the last conventual died in exile in Rapperswil in 1561. Two years ago, an arbitration tribunal in Rapperswil decided among others: Sebastian Hegner had to pay the fees that were confiscated to the city of Zürich, to resign to reinstate the Rüti Monastery, subject to a decision by a Christian council and a common reformation, and Hegner had to force the abbot of the Reichenau convent to give over all documents related the Rüti Monastery. In return, the city of Zürich pledged safe-conduct within the area of the city republic of Zürich and to preserve Hegner from |
1746_16 | harm and to refund all property back to Sebastian Hegner. The council of the city of Zürich also agreed corn and wine to pay in kind and the amount of 35 Gulden at Christmas at his new domicile in Rapperswil. The document was sealed by Lux Ritter, alt Schultheiss of the city of Luzern, Cristoffel Schorno, stadtholder and military representative in Schwyz, and Gilg Tschudi, Landammann in Glarus, on 26 January 1559. |
1746_17 | The monastery's treasury, left in Rapperswil, is conserved today in the Stadtmuseum Rapperswil. The enormous number of estates of the former monastery — around 185 localities in northeastern Switzerland — were managed as Amt Rüti by an Amtmann (member of the city of Zürich government) until 1798. Following the Reformation in Zürich, Rüti got one of the first public schools in the canton of Zürich, established by the Prophezei reformers and some of the former monks of the monastery.
List of Abbots
Buildings
The monastery comprised a hospital, a pilgrims hospice, stables, buildings for the monks, the cloister that was connecting the buildings protected by a stone wall, and a large number of additional buildings, among them at least one mill that was using the waterpower of the Schwarz and Jona rivers. |
1746_18 | The present structure of the former monastery church, as of today the Reformed church in Rüti, was built from 1206 to 1283 and rebuilt in 1706 and again in 1770. The church has one tower on the south. The interior is decorated with painted stucco created in the 1480/90s.
Most of the monastery's buildings were destroyed by fire in 1706. The remaining buildings were built probably in the early 16th century: the so-called "Spitzerliegenschaft" (stable and warehouse) and the Pfarrhaus (rectory). The Amthaus (Bailiff's house) was rebuilt in 1706 and serves as library, Kindergarten, as a museum of local history and site of the archives of the municipality of Rüti, and the present Rüti Church was used as Reformed church of the municipality Rüti and the village of Tann. |
1746_19 | Protection
The remaining structures of the monastery – Rüti Reformed Church and the three buildings related to the monastery – are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class A object.
See also
Reformation in Zürich
Ritterhaus Bubikon
Rüti Reformed Church
References
Literature
Peter Niederhäuser und Raphael Sennhauser: Adelsgrablegen und Adelsmemoria im Kloster Rüti. In: Kunst + Architektur in der Schweiz, Volume 54, No. 1, 2003.
Bernard Andenmatten und Brigitte Degler-Spengler (Red.): Die Prämonstratenser und Prämonstratenserinnen in der Schweiz. In: Helvetia Sacra IV/3, Basel 2002. .
Roger Sablonier: Adel im Wandel. Untersuchungen zur sozialen Situation des ostschweizerischen Adels um 1300. Chronos-Verlag, Zürich 1979/2000. .
Emil Wüst: Kunst in der Reformierten Kirche Rüti ZH. Hrsg. Kirchenpflege Rüti, 1989.
External links |
1746_20 | Evangelisch-reformierte Kirchgemeinde Rüti
Premonstratensian Order
Premonstratensian travel guide
Christian monasteries in Switzerland
Premonstratensian monasteries in Switzerland
Hospitals in Switzerland
Hospitals established in the 13th century
Buildings and structures in the canton of Zürich
1206 establishments in Europe
13th-century establishments in Switzerland
1525 disestablishments in Europe
16th-century disestablishments in the Old Swiss Confederacy
Monasteries dissolved under the Swiss Reformation |
1747_0 | Our Mutual Friend, written in 1864–1865, is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, quoting from the character Bella Wilfer in the book, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life". |
1747_1 | Most reviewers in the 1860s continued to praise Dickens's skill as a writer in general, but did not review this novel in detail. Some found the plot both too complex and not well laid out. The Times of London found the first few chapters did not draw the reader into the characters. In the 20th century, however, reviewers began to find much to approve in the later novels of Dickens, including Our Mutual Friend. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some reviewers suggested that Dickens was, in fact, experimenting with structure, and that the characters considered somewhat flat and not recognized by the contemporary reviewers were meant rather to be true representations of the Victorian working class and the key to understanding the structure of the society depicted by Dickens in the novel.
Characters |
1747_2 | Major characters
John Harmon – is heir to the Harmon estate, under the condition that he marry Bella Wilfer. He is presumed dead throughout most of the novel, though he is living under the name John Rokesmith, and working as a secretary for the Boffins in an attempt to better get to know Bella, the Boffins, and people's general reaction to John Harmon's "death". Harmon also uses the alias Julius Handford upon first returning to London. Harmon's "death" and subsequent resurrection as Rokesmith/Handford is consistent with Dickens's recurring theme in the novel of rebirth from the water. His upward social mobility through his own efforts is presented as favourable, in contrast with Headstone, Hexam, and the Lammles. |
1747_3 | Bella Wilfer – is a beautiful girl born into poverty, who learns upon the death of Old Mr Harmon that she is the intended wife for his son, a condition of his inheritance. When her intended husband, John Harmon, is reported to have been killed, she is left without future prospects. She learns of the trouble money can bring when taken in by the newly-rich Boffins. Bella rejects Rokesmith's proposal at first but later accepts it. Initially described as a "mercenary young woman", who describes herself upon meeting Lizzie Hexam as having "no more character than a canary bird", Bella undergoes a significant moral change in the novel. Although originally completely preoccupied with money, her complexity is eventually displayed in her ability to defy the societal pressures to achieve happiness unrelated to wealth. She is praised for her "vivacity and lifelikeness", with greater complexity than some of the other, more static characters. Her relationship with her father is more like that of a |
1747_4 | mother and son, as she consistently dotes upon him, calling him her "cherub". Her open and warm relationship with her father contrasts with her strained and resentful relationships with her mother and sister. |
1747_5 | Nicodemus (Noddy) Boffin, the Golden Dustman – becomes a member of the nouveaux riches when Old Mr Harmon's heir is considered dead. He is illiterate, but wants to fit the image of a wealthy man, and so hires Silas Wegg to read to him in hopes of gaining more intelligence and worldliness. He is nearly blackmailed by Wegg. He assumes the role of a miser to show Bella the dangers of wealth, but eventually admits this behaviour was an act and gives his money to Bella and John. Boffin's innocence, naïve curiosity, and desire to learn in his new position in life contrast with his "elaborate performances as Boffin the miser". Critics speculate that Dickens's decision to have Boffin playing a part may not have been planned, as it was not very convincing for a man who has shown his simplistic ignorance on several occasions. Boffin's inheritance of Old Harmon's money is appropriate because Harmon had attained it by combing the dust heaps, because this suggests social mobility. Boffin |
1747_6 | represents a wholesome contrast to such wealthy characters as the Veneerings and Podsnaps, and may have been based on Henry Dodd, a ploughboy who made his fortune removing London's rubbish. |
1747_7 | Mrs Henrietta Boffin – is Noddy Boffin's wife, and a very motherly woman, who convinces Mr Boffin to take in an orphan boy called Johnny. This indicates "another progressive development for Dickens as his female characters undertake a more active role in social reform". |
1747_8 | Lizzie Hexam – is a daughter of Gaffer Hexam and sister of Charley Hexam. She is an affectionate daughter, but knows that Charley must escape their living circumstances if he is to succeed in life, so she gives Charley her money and helps him leave while their father is away. Later she is rejected by Charley after she remains in poverty. Pursued romantically by both Bradley Headstone and Eugene Wrayburn, she fears Headstone's violent passion and yearns for Wrayburn's love, while acutely aware of the social gap between them. Lizzie saves Wrayburn from Headstone's attack and the two are married. She in effect acts as the moral centre of the story and is by far the "most wholly good character […] almost bereft of ego". Dickens carries over her moral superiority into her physical characterisation. Her "capacity for self-sacrifice […] is only slightly more credible than her gift for refined speech", making her slightly unbelievable in comparison to her uneducated father and Jenny Wren. |
1747_9 | Lizzie's concern about social class reveals her reasoning for ensuring her brother's escape from poverty and ignorance, though she remains humble about her own situation. However, her moral character attracts Wrayburn and her inherent goodness is rewarded with marital happiness. |
1747_10 | Charley Hexam – is the son of Jesse "Gaffer" Hexam and a brother of Lizzie. Originally a very caring brother, this changes as he rises above Lizzie in class and must remove himself from her to maintain his social standing. He was born into poverty, but receives schooling and becomes a teacher under Headstone's mentoring. Dickens uses him to critique both the schooling available to the poor, which was often over-crowded and noisy, as well as the snobbish tendencies of those who manage to rise in status. Hexam is presented as "morally corrupt", because of how he distances himself from his past, and from his loving sister, in the name of his own upward movement. |
1747_11 | Mortimer Lightwood – is a lawyer, who is an acquaintance of the Veneerings and a friend of Eugene Wrayburn. Lightwood acts as the "storyteller" and it is through him that the reader and the other characters learn about Harmon's will. However, under the "mask of irony" he assumes in telling his stories, he feels true friendship for Eugene, respect for Twemlow, and concern for the issues in which he is involved. In addition, he also serves as the "commentator and a voice of conscience" with sarcasm sometimes covering his concern. Through Lightwood's reason and advice, the reader is better able to judge the characters' actions. |
1747_12 | Eugene Wrayburn – who is seen as the novel's second hero, is a barrister, and a gentleman by birth, though he is roguish and insolent. He is a close friend of Mortimer Lightwood, and involved in a love triangle with Lizzie Hexam and Bradley Headstone. Both these characters act as foils to Wrayburn. Lizzie contrasts with Eugene's more negative traits and Headstone makes Eugene appear more virtuous. He is nearly killed by Headstone but, like Harmon/Rokesmith, "reborn" after his incident in the river. Though Wrayburn appears morally grey through most of the novel, by the end he is seen as a moral, sympathetic character and a true gentleman, after choosing to marry Lizzie in order to save her reputation, even though she is socially below him. |
1747_13 | Jenny Wren – whose real name is Fanny Cleaver, is "the dolls' dressmaker", with whom Lizzie lives after her father dies. She is crippled with a bad back, although not ugly. She is very motherly towards her drunken father, whom she calls her "bad child". Jenny later cares for Eugene while he recovers from Headstone's attack on his life. She may have a romance with Sloppy at the end of the book, which the reader may surmise will end in marriage. Although her mannerisms give her a certain "strangeness", Jenny is very perceptive, identifying Eugene Wrayburn's intentions towards Lizzie in his small actions. Her role is a creator and a caretaker, and her "pleasant fancies" of "flowers, bird song, numbers of blessed, white-clad children" reflect the mind's ability to rise above adverse circumstances. |
1747_14 | Mr Riah – is a Jew who manages Mr Fledgeby's money-lending business. He cares for and assists Lizzie Hexam and Jenny Wren when they have no one else. Some critics believe that Riah was meant by Dickens to act as an apology for his stereotyping of Fagin in Oliver Twist, and in particular a response to Mrs Eliza Davis. She had written to Dickens complaining that "the portrayal of Fagin did 'a great wrong' to all Jews." However, some still take issue with Riah, asserting that he is "too gentle to be a believable human being." |
1747_15 | Bradley Headstone – began life as a pauper but rose to become Charley Hexam's schoolmaster and the love interest of Miss Peecher. However, he ignores her and falls in love with Lizzie Hexam, whom he pursues passionately and violently, though his advances are rejected. He then develops an insane jealousy towards Eugene Wrayburn, whom he follows at night like an "ill-tamed wild animal" in hopes of catching him with Lizzie together. He disguises himself as Rogue Riderhood and almost succeeds in drowning Wrayburn. After Riderhood realises that Headstone is impersonating him to incriminate him for Wrayburn's murder, he attempts to blackmail Headstone, and this leads to a fight, and both men drowning in the river. Described repeatedly as "decent" and "constrained", Headstone's personality splits between "painfully respectable" and "wild jealousy", with a "passion terrible in its violence". He is presented by Dickens as an animal in the night and a respectable, "mechanical" schoolteacher |
1747_16 | during the day. A possible explanation for this dichotomy may be Headstone's "intellectual insecurity", that manifests itself in violence after Lizzie's rejection. The "most complex of Dickens's villain-murderers are presented as such double-figures". Dickens here demonstrates the way identity can be manipulated. Headstone also serves as a foil to Wrayburn, and his evil nature antagonizes Wrayburn, as much as Lizzie's goodness helps him. |
1747_17 | Silas Wegg – is ballad-seller with a wooden leg. He is a "social parasite", hired to read for the Boffins and teach Mr Boffin how to read, despite not being entirely literate himself. Wegg finds Harmon's will in the dust heaps, and he and Venus attempt to use it to blackmail the Boffins. He wishes to buy back his own leg as soon as he has the money, which is an attempt to "complete himself". Wegg claims to want the leg so that he can be seen as respectable. Some critics find the juxtaposition of Wegg's villainy and his sense of humour to be inconsistent. |
1747_18 | Mr Venus – a taxidermist and articulator of bones, who is in love with Pleasant Riderhood, whom he eventually marries. He meets Silas Wegg after having procured his amputated leg and he pretends to join Silas in blackmailing Mr Boffin regarding Harmon's will, while really informing Boffin of Silas's scheme. Dickens is said to have based Mr Venus on a real taxidermist named J Willis, although Venus's "defining obsession" renders him "among Dickens's most outlandish, least realistic" characters.
Mr Alfred Lammle – is married to Sophronia Lammle. Both of them, at the time of their marriage, were under the false impression that the other was fairly wealthy. Subsequently, they are forced to use their overabundance of charm and superficiality in attempts to make influential acquaintances and gain money through them. |
1747_19 | Mrs Sophronia Lammle – is described, early in the novel, as "the mature young lady" and a proper young woman. However, this turns out to be ironic as she is later shown to be greedy, cold, and manipulative. She married Alfred Lammle because she believed he had money, and when it turned out he did not, the two of them formed a partnership that involves swindling money from others. They, for example, conspire to trap Georgiana Podsnap in a marriage with Fledgeby, though Sophronia repents before this plan can come to fruition, and arranges for Twemlow to inform the Podsnaps without her husband's knowledge. |
1747_20 | Georgiana Podsnap – a daughter of Mr and Mrs Podsnap, who is very sheltered, shy, trusting and naïve. Because of this she is taken advantage of by more manipulative upper-class characters, such as Fledgeby and the Lammles, who scheme to "befriend" her and take her money. She is courted by Fledgeby, through Alfred Lammle, although not with honourable intentions, and nearly finds herself trapped in a marriage with Fledgeby until Sophronia Lammle suffers a change of heart.
Mr. Fledgeby – Fascination Fledgeby is a friend of the Lammles. He owns Mr. Riah's moneylending business, is greedy and corrupt, and makes his money through speculation. He provides a contrast with Mr Riah's gentleness, and underlines the point that "a Jew may be kindly and a Christian cruel". Fledgeby nearly marries Georgiana Podsnap to gain access to her money, but Sophronia Lammle backs out of the scheme and, once Fledgeby is no longer allied with the Lammles, they seek him out and beat him. |
1747_21 | Roger "Rogue" Riderhood – "Gaffer" Hexam's partner until Gaffer rejects him when he is convicted of theft. In revenge for that slight he falsely turns Gaffer in as the murderer of John Harmon, in the hope of receiving a reward. Later, Riderhood becomes a lock-keeper, and Headstone attempts to frame him for the murder of Eugene Wrayburn. After attempts to blackmail Headstone, the two men fall in the river Thames during a fight and both drown. In his "literally irredeemable villainy", Riderhood represents an opportunistic character who will change his behaviour according to whatever suits his needs best at any given moment.
Reginald "Rumty" Wilfer – is Bella Wilfer's doting father, who is gentle, innocent, fatherly, and kindly, despite his querulous wife and daughter and thankless work as a clerk. Dickens describes him in almost childish terms, and he is often called "the Cherub". |
1747_22 | Minor characters
Mr Inspector – a police officer, who acts as a witness to several important events, such as when the corpse from the river is mistakenly identified as John Harmon, when Gaffer Hexam is taken into custody, and when the real John Harmon is named. In general, he is "imperturbable, omnicompetent, firm but genial, and an accomplished actor", who commands authority. However he is not particularly effective in his administration of the law, and this leads to doubt about the justice system in the novel. |
1747_23 | Mr John Podsnap – a pompous man of the upper middle class, married to Mrs Podsnap and the father of Georgiana, who is smug and jingoistic. Some critics believe that Dickens used Podsnap to satirise John Forster, Dickens's lifelong friend and official biographer. However, Dickens insisted he only used some of Forster's mannerisms for this character, who was in no way to represent his closest friend. Forster, like Dickens, rose with difficulty from an impoverished middle-class background. The character of Podsnap was used to represent the views of "Society", as shown in his disapproval of Lizzie Hexam and Eugene Wrayburn's marriage.
Mrs Podsnap – the mother of Georgiana Podsnap. Though she embodies the materialistic ideals of her husband and daughter, Mrs Podsnap is the least prominent of the family. She is described as a "fine woman" in her embodiment of the typical upper-class wife. |
1747_24 | Mrs Wilfer – Bella's mother, a woman who is never satisfied with what she has. Her haughtiness is apparent in the way she acts at the Boffins's home and when Bella and Rokesmith return after their wedding. Her animosity towards her husband, her greed and discontent contrast with her husband's good nature and provide an image of what Bella could become, should she not change.
Lavinia Wilfer – Bella's younger sister and George Sampson's fiancée. Vocal and opinionated, she is the only character who will stand up to Mrs Wilfer by matching her derisiveness and audacity. In some ways, she acts as a foil to Bella, and while Bella overcomes her desire for money and appreciates other aspects of life, Lavinia remains resentful in her poverty.
George Sampson – Lavinia Wilfer's suitor, who was originally in love with Bella. He provides comic relief and a contrast with the idyllic relationship between Bella and Rokesmith/Harmon. |
1747_25 | Mr Melvin Twemlow – the well-connected friend of the Veneerings, who is often cultivated for his supposed influence with powerful people, such as Lord Snigsworth. Mrs Lammle tells him about their plot to marry Georgiana Podsnap and Fledgeby, to whom Twemlow owes money. Though Twemlow is introduced as being as insensible as a table at the Veneerings' dinner party, he comes to reflect a wise way of thinking. His wearing of a collar and cravat creates "picturesque and archaic" impression, and he proves himself a "true gentleman in his response to Wrayburn's marriage". |
1747_26 | Mrs Betty Higden – a child-minder, who takes in poor children and cares for them, including Johnny, the orphan whom the Boffins plan to adopt before he dies in the children's hospital. She is old and poor, and portrayed sympathetically as pitiable. She is so terrified of dying in the workhouse that, when she begins to grow sick, she runs away to the country and ends up dying in Lizzie Hexam's arms. Mrs Higden draws readers' attention to the miserable lives led by the poor, and the need for social reform.
Johnny – the orphan great-grandson of Betty Higden. The Boffins plan on adopting Johnny, but he dies in the Children's Hospital before they are able to do so.
Sloppy – a foundling who assists Betty Higden in taking care of children. Raised in the workhouse, he has a learning disability, but is nevertheless adept at reading the newspaper for Mrs Higden. He is portrayed as inherently innocent because of his disability, and carts away Wegg at the end of the novel. |
1747_27 | Jesse "Gaffer" Hexam – a waterman and the father of Lizzie and Charley, who makes a living by robbing corpses found in the river Thames. His former partner, Rogue Riderhood, turns him in for the murder of John Harmon after Harmon's body is supposedly dragged from the river. A search is mounted to find and arrest Gaffer, but he is discovered dead in his boat. Gaffer's opposition to education prompts Lizzie to sneak Charley away to school, though she stays with her father. As a result, Gaffer disowns Charley as a son. In a sense, Gaffer predicted the alienating effect education would have on Charley.
Pleasant Riderhood – the daughter of Rogue Riderhood, who works in a pawn shop, and, like Jenny Wren and Lizzie Hexam, is another daughter caring for her abusive father as though he were her child, and who, in vain, tries to steer him along the path of right. She eventually marries Mr Venus. |
1747_28 | Mr and Mrs Veneering – a nouveau-riche husband and wife whose main preoccupation is to advance in the social world. They invite influential people to their dinner parties where their furniture gleams with a sheen that they also put on to make themselves seem more impressive. They "wear" their acquaintances, their possessions, and their wealth like jewellery, in an attempt to impress those around them. Veneering eventually goes bankrupt and they retire to France to live on the jewels he bought for his wife.
Miss Abbey Potterson – mistress of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, she keeps the inn respectable, and only allows patrons to drink as much as she sees fit. She is likened, humorously, to a schoolmistress, linking her to the novel's concern with education. |
1747_29 | Miss Peecher – a school teacher who is in love with Bradley Headstone. She is a "good and harmless" character, though she displays an "addiction to rules and forms". In addition, she shows a "naive confidence in the outward appearance of things", as demonstrated by her love of Headstone, a villain who gives the impression of being good.
Mr Dolls – Jenny Wren's alcoholic father. Jenny calls him her "bad child", and treats him accordingly. His real name is not known to Eugene, so Eugene calls him "Mr Dolls". As his daughter is really named Fanny Cleaver, his name might be Mr Cleaver, but he is never called by a name other than "my bad child", or "Mr Dolls" in the novel. |
1747_30 | George Radfoot - third mate on the ship bringing John Harmon back to England, whose dead body, found in the river by Gaffer Hexam, is identified as being Harmon, because of the papers found in his pockets. He had been involved in crimes and schemes with Riderhood, who most likely was responsible for trying to kill Harmon and killing Radfoot. |
1747_31 | Plot summary
Having made his fortune from London's rubbish, a rich misanthropic miser dies, estranged from all except his faithful employees Mr. and Mrs. Boffin. By his will, his fortune goes to his estranged son John Harmon, who is to return from his home abroad (possibly in South Africa) to claim it, on condition that he marries a woman he has never met, Miss Bella Wilfer. The implementation of the will is in the charge of the solicitor, Mortimer Lightwood, who has no other practice. |
1747_32 | The son and heir does not appear, though some knew him aboard the ship to London. A body is found in the Thames by Gaffer Hexam, rowed by his daughter Lizzie. He is a waterman who makes his living by retrieving corpses and taking the cash in their pockets, before handing them over to the authorities. Papers in the pockets of the drowned man identify him as Harmon. Present at the identification of the water-soaked corpse is a mysterious young man, who gives his name as Julius Handford and then disappears. |
1747_33 | The elder Harmon's estate devolves upon Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, naïve and good-hearted people who wish to enjoy it for themselves and to share it with others. The childless couple take pity on Miss Bella Wilfer, whose fortunes are thought to have been lost with the death of John Harmon, and take her into their household, and treat her as their pampered child and heiress. Bella is disgusted by her lower middle class upbringing, and obsessed with marrying a wealthy man. They also accept an offer from Julius Handford, now going under the name of John Rokesmith, to serve as their confidential secretary and man of business, at no salary for a trial period of two years. Rokesmith uses this position to watch and learn everything about the Boffins, Miss Wilfer, and the aftershock of the drowning of Harmon. Mr. Boffin engages a one-legged ballad-seller, Silas Wegg, to read aloud to him in the evenings, and Wegg tries to take advantage of his position and of Mr. Boffin's good heart to obtain other |
1747_34 | advantages from the wealthy dustman. When the Boffins purchase a large home, Wegg is invited to live in the old Harmon home. Wegg hopes to find hidden treasure in the house or in the mounds of trash on the property. |
1747_35 | Gaffer Hexam, who found the body, is accused of murdering Harmon by a fellow waterman, Roger "Rogue" Riderhood, who is bitter at having been cast off as Hexam's partner, and who covets the large reward offered in relation to the murder. As a result of the accusation, Hexam is shunned by his fellows on the river, and excluded from The Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters, the public house they frequent. Hexam's young son, the clever but priggish Charley Hexam, leaves his father's house to better himself at school, and to train to be a schoolmaster, encouraged by his sister, the beautiful Lizzie Hexam. Lizzie stays with her father, to whom she is devoted. |
1747_36 | Before Riderhood can claim the reward for his false allegation, Hexam is found drowned himself. Lizzie Hexam becomes the lodger of a doll's dressmaker, a disabled teenager nicknamed "Jenny Wren". Jenny's alcoholic father lives with them, and is treated by Jenny as a child. A sub-plot involves the activities of the devious Mr. and Mrs. Lammle, a couple who have married each other for money, only to discover that neither has any. They attempt to obtain financial advantage by pairing off Fledgeby to the naive heiress Georgiana Podsnap. Fledgeby is an extortioner and money-lender, who uses the kindly old Jew Riah as his cover, temporarily causing Riah to fall out with his friend and protégée Jenny Wren. |
1747_37 | The work-shy barrister Eugene Wrayburn notices Lizzie when accompanying his friend and business partner Mortimer Lightwood to Gaffer Hexam's home and falls in love with her. However, he soon gains a violent rival in Bradley Headstone, Charley Hexam's schoolmaster. Charley wants his sister to be under obligation to no one but him, and tries to arrange lessons for her with Headstone, only to find that Wrayburn has already engaged a teacher for both Lizzie and Jenny. Headstone quickly develops an unreasonable passion for Lizzie, and makes an unsuccessful proposal, which Lizzie firmly but kindly refuses. Angered by being refused, and by Wrayburn's dismissive attitude towards him, Headstone comes to see Wrayburn as the source of all his misfortunes, and takes to following him around the streets of London at night. Lizzie fears Headstone's threats to Wrayburn, and is unsure of Wrayburn's intentions toward her (Wrayburn admits to Lightwood that he does not know his own intentions yet, |
1747_38 | either). She flees both men, getting work up-river from London, with the help of Mr. Riah. |
1747_39 | Mr. and Mrs. Boffin attempt to adopt a young orphan, in the care of his great-grandmother, Betty Higden, but the boy dies. Mrs. Higden minds children for a living, assisted by a foundling known as Sloppy. When Lizzie Hexam finds Mrs. Higden dying and stops to care for her, she meets the Boffins and Bella Wilfer.
Rokesmith is in love with Bella Wilfer, but she cannot bear to accept him, having insisted that she will marry only for money. Mr. Boffin appears to be corrupted by his wealth, and obsessed with biographies of misers. He begins to treat Rokesmith with contempt, stinginess, and cruelty. This arouses Bella Wilfer's sympathy, and when the Lammles (hoping to take Bella' and Rokesmith's place as Mr. Boffin's favorites) reveal to Mr. Boffin that Rokesmith has proposed to Bella, and he dismisses Rokesmith, Bella stands up for him. Rokesmith and Bella marry and live happily, though in relatively poor circumstances. Bella soon conceives. |
1747_40 | In the meantime, Wrayburn has obtained information about Lizzie's whereabouts from Jenny's father, and finds the object of his affections. Headstone engages with Riderhood, now working as a lock-keeper, as Headstone is consumed with executing his threats against Wrayburn. After following Wrayburn up river and seeing him with Lizzie, Headstone attacks Wrayburn and leaves him for dead. Headstone tries to place blame for the assault on Rogue Riderhood by dressing in similar clothes when doing the deed and throwing his own clothes in the river. Riderhood fetches the bundle of clothing. Lizzie finds Wrayburn in the river and rescues him, with Jenny's help, who has discovered Fledgby's trick, and reconciled with Mr. Riah. Wrayburn, on his deathbed, marries Lizzie, and suppresses any hint that Headstone was his attacker to save her reputation. When he survives, he is glad that his near-death experience brought him into a loving marriage; although her social inferiority had not bothered him, |
1747_41 | he believes Lizzie would not otherwise have married him due to the social gulf between them. |
1747_42 | Headstone learns Wrayburn is alive, recovering from the brutal beating, and married to Lizzie; he is overcome with the hopelessness of his situation. Riderhood attempts to blackmail Headstone. Confronted by Riderhood in his classroom, Headstone is seized with a self-destructive urge and flings himself into the lock, pulling Riderhood with him; both drown.
Meanwhile, Silas Wegg has, with help from Mr. Venus (an "articulator of bones"), searched the dust mounds and discovered a later will of the Elder Harmon, which bequeaths his estate to the Crown rather than the Boffins. Wegg decides to blackmail Boffin, but Venus has second thoughts and reveals the plot to Boffin. |
1747_43 | It gradually becomes clear to the reader that John Rokesmith is in fact John Harmon. Harmon had switched clothes with his shipmate en route to London, because Harmon wanted an opportunity to learn about his betrothed before claiming his inheritance; the shipmate agreed, with the intention of stealing Harmon's money. However, Riderhood had drugged, robbed, and dumped both Harmon and his shipmate in the river. Harmon survived the attempted murder, and maintained his alias to try to win Bella Wilfer for himself, rather than his inheritance. Now that she has married him, believing him to be poor, he throws off his disguise. It is revealed that Mr. Boffin's apparent miserliness and ill-treatment of his secretary were part of a scheme to test Bella's motives. |
1747_44 | When Wegg attempts to clinch his blackmail on the basis of the later will, Boffin turns the tables by revealing a still later will by which the fortune is granted to Boffin even at young John Harmon's expense. The Boffins are determined to make the Harmons their heirs anyway, so all ends well, except for Wegg, who is carted away by Sloppy. Sloppy himself becomes friendly with Jenny Wren, whose father has died.
Original publication
Our Mutual Friend, like most Dickens novels, was published in monthly instalments. Each of the 19 instalments cost one shilling (with the exception of the nineteenth, which was double-length and cost two). Each issue featured 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Marcus Stone. Sales of Our Mutual Friend were 35,000 for the first monthly number, but then dropped by 5,000 for the second number. The concluding double number (instalments XIX–XX) sold 19,000. |
1747_45 | BOOK THE FIRST: THE CUP AND THE LIP
I – May 1864 (chapters 1–4);
II – June 1864 (chapters 5–7);
III – July 1864 (chapters 8–10);
IV – August 1864 (chapters 11–13);
V – September 1864 (chapters 14–17).
BOOK THE SECOND: BIRDS OF A FEATHER
VI – October 1864 (chapters 1–3);
VII – November 1864 (chapters 4–6);
VIII – December 1864 (chapters 7–10);
IX – January 1865 (chapters 11–13);
X – February 1865 (chapters 14–16).
BOOK THE THIRD: A LONG LANE
XI – March 1865 (chapters 1–4);
XII – April 1865 (chapters 5–7);
XIII – May 1865 (chapters 8–10);
XIV – June 1865 (chapters 11–14);
XV – July 1865 (chapters 15–17).
BOOK THE FOURTH: A TURNING
XVI – August 1865 (chapters 1–4);
XVII – September 1865 (chapters 5–7);
XVIII – October 1865 (chapters 8–11);
XIX-XX – November 1865 [chapters 12–17 (Chapter the Last)].
Historical contexts |
1747_46 | Dickens and Our Mutual Friend
Inspiration for Our Mutual Friend, possibly came from Richard Henry Horne's essay "Dust; or Ugliness Redeemed", published in Household Words in 1850, which contains a number of situations and characters that are found in the novel. These include a dust heap, in which a legacy lies buried, a man with a wooden leg, who has an acute interest in the dust heap, Silas Wegg, and another character, Jenny Wren, with "poor withered legs". In 1862 Dickens jotted down in his notebook: "LEADING INCIDENT FOR A STORY. A man—young and eccentric?—feigns to be dead, and is dead to all intents and purposes, and ... for years retains that singular view of life and character". Additionally, Dickens's longtime friend John Forster was a possible model for the wealthy, pompous John Podsnap. |
1747_47 | Our Mutual Friend was published in nineteen monthly numbers, in the fashion of many earlier Dickens novels, for the first time since Little Dorrit (1855–57). A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860–61) had been serialised in Dickens's weekly magazine All the Year Round. Dickens remarked to Wilkie Collins that he was "quite dazed" at the prospect of putting out twenty monthly parts after more recent weekly serials. |
1747_48 | Our Mutual Friend was the first of Dickens's novels not illustrated by Hablot Browne, with whom he had collaborated since The Pickwick Papers (1836–37). Dickens chose instead the younger Marcus Stone and, uncharacteristically, left much of the illustrating process to Stone's discretion. After suggesting only a few slight alterations for the cover, for instance, Dickens wrote to Stone: "All perfectly right. Alterations quite satisfactory. Everything very pretty". Stone's encounter with a taxidermist named Willis provided the basis for Dickens's Mr Venus, after Dickens had indicated he was searching for an uncommon occupation ("it must be something very striking and unusual") for the novel. |
1747_49 | Dickens, who was aware that it was now taking him longer than before to write, made sure he had built up a safety net of five serial numbers before the first went to publication for May 1864. He was at work on number sixteen when he was involved in the traumatic Staplehurst rail crash. Following the crash, and while tending to the injured among the "dead and dying," Dickens went back to the carriage to rescue the manuscript from his overcoat. With the resulting stress, from which Dickens would never fully recover, he came up two and a half pages short for the sixteenth serial, published in August 1865. Dickens acknowledged this close brush with death, that nearly cut short the composition of Our Mutual Friend, in the novel's postscript: |
1747_50 | On Friday the Ninth of June in the present year, Mr and Mrs Boffin (in their manuscript dress of receiving Mr and Mrs Lammle at breakfast) were on the South-Eastern Railway with me, in a terribly destructive accident. When I had done what I could to help others, I climbed back into my carriage—nearly turned over a viaduct, and caught aslant upon the turn—to extricate the worthy couple. They were much soiled, but otherwise unhurt. [...] I remember with devout thankfulness that I can never be much nearer parting company with my readers for ever than I was then, until there shall be written against my life, the two words with which I have this day closed this book:—THE END.
Dickens was travelling with his mistress Ellen Ternan and her mother. |
1747_51 | Marriage |
1747_52 | In Our Mutual Friend Dickens explores the conflict between doing what society expects and the idea of being true to oneself. With regard to this the influence of the family is important. In many of Dickens's novels, including Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit, parents try to force their children into arranged marriages. John Harmon, for example, was supposed to marry Bella to suit the conditions of his father's will, and though initially, he refused to marry her for that reason. However, he later married her for love. Harmon goes against his father's wishes in another way by taking the alias of John Rokesmith he refuses his inheritance. Bella is also swayed by the influence of her parents. Her mother wishes her to marry for money to better the fortunes of the entire family, although her father is happy with her marrying John Rokesmith for love. Bella's marriage to Rokesmith goes against what is expected of her by her mother, but eventually her mother accepts the fact that Bella has |
1747_53 | at least married someone who will make her happy. However, later on in the novel, Bella accepts the everyday duties of a wife, and seemingly gives up her independence. Yet she refuses to be the "doll in the doll's house"; and is not content with being a wife who rarely leaves her home without her husband. Furthermore, Bella reads up on the current events so that she can discuss them with her husband, and is actively involved in all of the couple's important decisions. |
1747_54 | Lizzie Hexam also objects to the expectation of marriage to Eugene Wrayburn, because she sees the difference in their social class status. Without marriage, their connection risks her reputation. She does not aspire to marrying Wrayburn even though she loves him and would be elevated in society simply by marrying him, which almost any woman would have done at the time. Lizzie feels that she is unworthy of him. Wrayburn, however, feels that he is unworthy of such a good woman. He also knows that his father would disapprove of her low social status. She goes against expectations when she refuses to marry Bradley Headstone. He would have been an excellent match for her by social class, according to norms of the time, however, Lizzie does not love him. She unselfishly does what others expect of her, like helping Charley escape their father to go to school, and living with Jenny Wren. Marrying Wrayburn is the only truly selfish act Lizzie commits in Our Mutual Friend, out of her love for |
1747_55 | him, when he made up his mind to ask her. |
1747_56 | Status of women
Because of the rapid increase in wealth generated by the Industrial Revolution, women gained power through their households and class positions. It was up to the women in Victorian society to display their family's rank by decorating their households. This directly influenced the man's business and class status. Upper-class homes were ornate, as well as packed full of materials, so that "A lack of clutter was to be considered in bad taste." Through handcrafts and home improvement, women asserted their power over the household: "The making of a true home is really our peculiar and inalienable right: a right, which no man can take from us; for a man can no more make a home than a drone can make a hive" (Frances Cobbe). |
1747_57 | Jews |
1747_58 | The Jewish characters in Our Mutual Friend are more sympathetic than Fagin in Oliver Twist. In 1854, The Jewish Chronicle had asked why "Jews alone should be excluded from the 'sympathizing heart' of this great author and powerful friend of the oppressed." Dickens (who had extensive knowledge of London street life and child exploitation) explained that he had made Fagin Jewish because "it unfortunately was true, of the time to which the story refers, that that class of criminal almost invariably was a Jew". Dickens commented that by calling Fagin a Jew he had meant no imputation against the Jewish faith, saying in a letter, "I have no feeling towards the Jews but a friendly one. I always speak well of them, whether in public or private, and bear my testimony (as I ought to do) to their perfect good faith in such transactions as I have ever had with them". Eliza Davis, whose husband had purchased Dickens's home in 1860 when he had put it up for sale, wrote to Dickens in June 1863 |
1747_59 | urging that "Charles Dickens the large hearted, whose works please so eloquently and so nobly for the oppressed of his country ... has encouraged a vile prejudice against the despised Hebrew." Dickens responded that he had always spoken well of Jews and held no prejudice against them. Replying, Mrs Davis asked Dickens to "examine more closely into the manners and character of the British Jews and to represent them as they really are." |
1747_60 | In his article, "Dickens and the Jews," Harry Stone claims that this "incident apparently brought home to Dickens the irrationality of some of his feelings about Jews; at any rate, it helped, along with the changing times, to move him more swiftly in the direction of active sympathy for them." Riah in Our Mutual Friend is a Jewish moneylender yet (contrary to stereotype) a profoundly sympathetic character, as can be seen especially in his relationship with Lizzie and Jenny Wren; Jenny calls him her "fairy godmother" and Lizzie refers to Riah as her "protector", after he finds her a job in the country and risks his own welfare to keep her whereabouts a secret from Fledgeby (his rapacious—and Christian—master). |
1747_61 | Etiquette
In the middle of the Victorian Era, the earlier conduct books, which covered topics such as "honesty, fortitude, and fidelity," were replaced with more modern etiquette books. These manuals served as another method to distinguish oneself by social class. Etiquette books specifically targeted members of the middle and upper classes, and it was not until 1897 that a manual, specifically Book of the Household, by Casell, addressed all the classes. Not only did the readership of etiquette manuals show class differences, but the practices prescribed within them became a way by which a member of the lower class could be identified. |
1747_62 | Most etiquette manuals addressed such things as calling cards, the duration of the call, and what was acceptable to say and do during a visit. One of the most popular etiquette books was Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, which was published in 1861. In this book, Beeton claims that a call of fifteen to twenty minutes is "quite sufficient" and states, "A lady paying a visit may remove her boa or neckerchief; but neither her shawl nor bonnet." Beeton goes on to write, "Of course no absorbed subject was ever spoken about. We kept ourselves to short sentences of small talk, and were punctual to our time."
Etiquette books were constantly changing themes and ideas, so this also distinguished who was an "insider" and who was an "outsider."
Water imagery |
1747_63 | A major symbol is the River Thames, which is linked to the major theme of rebirth and renewal. Water is seen as a sign of new life, and associated with the Christian sacrament of Baptism. Characters like John Harmon and Eugene Wrayburn end up in the river, and come out reborn. Wrayburn emerges from the river close to death, but is ready to marry Lizzie, and to avoid naming his attacker to save her reputation. He surprises everyone, including himself, when he survives and goes on to have a loving marriage with Lizzie. John Harmon also appears to end up in the river through no fault of his own, and when Gaffer pulls a body dressed like Harmon out of the waters, Harmon adopts the alias of John Rokesmith. This alias is for his own safety and peace of mind; he wants to know that he can do things on his own, and does not need his father's name or money to make a good life for himself. |
1747_64 | Dickens uses many images that relate to water. Phrases such as the "depths and shallows of Podsnappery," and the "time had come for flushing and flourishing this man down for good", are examples of such imagery. Some critics see this as being used excessively. |
1747_65 | Themes
Aside from examining the novel's form and characters, modern critics of Our Mutual Friend have focused on identifying and analysing what they perceive as the main themes of the novel. Although Stanley Friedman's 1973 essay "The Motif of Reading in Our Mutual Friend" emphasises references to literacy and illiteracy in the novel, Friedman states, "Money, the dust-heaps, and the river have been seen as the main symbols, features, that help develop such themes as avarice, predation, death and rebirth, the quest for identity and pride. To these images and ideas, we may add what Monroe Engel calls the 'social themes of Our Mutual Friend—having to do with money-dust, and relatedly with the treatment of the poor, education, representative government, even the inheritance laws.'" |
1747_66 | According to Metz, many of the prominent themes in Dickens's earlier works of fiction are intricately woven into Dickens's last novel. She states, "Like David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friend is about the relationship between work and the realization of self, about the necessity to be 'useful' before one can be 'happy.' Like Great Expectations, it is about the power of money to corrupt those who place their faith in its absolute value. Like Bleak House, it is about the legal, bureaucratic, and social barriers that intervene between individuals and their nearest neighbours. Like all of Dickens's novels, and especially the later ones, it is about pervasive social problems—poverty, disease, class bitterness, the sheer ugliness and vacuity of contemporary life."
Literary significance and criticism |
1747_67 | Contemporary critics of Dickens
At the time of its original serial publication, Our Mutual Friend was not regarded as one of Dickens's greatest successes, and on average fewer than 30,000 copies of each instalment was sold. Though The New York Times, of 22 November 1865, conjectured, "By most readers ... the last work by Dickens will be considered his best," direct evidence of how readers responded to Dickens's novels is scarce. Because Dickens burned his letters, the voices of his nineteenth-century serial audiences remain elusive. Thus, evidence of the reactions of his Victorian era readers must be obtained from reviews of Our Mutual Friend by Dickens's contemporaries. |
1747_68 | The first British periodical to print a review of Our Mutual Friend, published 30 April 1864 in The London Review, extolled the first serial instalment, stating, "Few literary pleasures are greater than that which we derive from opening the first number of one of Mr Dickens's stories" and "Our Mutual Friend opens well".
In 1866 George Stott found the novel flawed: "Mr Dickens must stand or fall by the severest canons of literary criticism: it would be an insult to his acknowledged rank to apply a more lenient standard; and bad art is not the less bad art and a failure because associated, as it is in his case, with much that is excellent, and not a little that is even fascinating." |
1747_69 | Dickens had his fans and detractors just like every author throughout the ages, but not even his most strident supporters like E. S. Dallas felt that Our Mutual Friend was perfect. Rather, the oft acknowledged "genius" of Dickens seems to have overshadowed all reviews and made it impossible for most critics to completely condemn the work, the majority of these reviews being a mixture of praise and disparagement. |
1747_70 | In November 1865 E. S. Dallas, in The Times, lauded Our Mutual Friend as "one of the best of even Dickens's tales," but was unable to ignore the flaws. "This last novel of Mr Charles Dickens, really one of his finest works, and one in which on occasion he even surpasses himself, labours under the disadvantage of a beginning that drags ... On the whole, however, at that early stage the reader was more perplexed than pleased. There was an appearance of great effort without corresponding result. We were introduced to a set of people in whom it is impossible to take an interest, and were made familiar with transactions that suggested horror. The great master of fiction exhibited all his skill, performed the most wonderful feats of language, loaded his page with wit and many a fine touch peculiar to himself. The agility of his pen was amazing, but still at first we were not much amused." Despite the mixed review, it pleased Dickens so well that he gave Dallas the manuscript. |
1747_71 | Plot
Many critics found fault with the plot, and in 1865, The New York Times described it as an "involved plot combined with an entire absence of the skill to manage and unfold it". In the London Review, in the same year, an anonymous critic felt that "the whole plot in which the deceased Harmon, Boffin, Wegg, and John Rokesmith, are concerned, is wild and fantastic, wanting in reality, and leading to a degree of confusion which is not compensated by any additional interest in the story" and he also found that "the final explanation is a disappointment." However, the London Review also thought, that "the mental state of a man about to commit the greatest of crimes has seldom been depicted with such elaboration and apparent truthfulness." |
1747_72 | Characters
Many reviewers responded negatively to the characters in Our Mutual Friend. The 1865 review by Henry James in The Nation described every character as "a mere bundle of eccentricities, animated by no principle of nature whatever", and condemned Dickens for a lack of characters who represent "sound humanity". James maintained that none of the characters add anything to the reader's understanding of human nature, and asserted that the characters in Our Mutual Friend, were "grotesque creatures", who did not represent actual existing Victorian types. |
1747_73 | Like James, the 1869 article "Table Talk" in Once a Week did not view the characters in Our Mutual Friend as realistic. The article asks: "Do men live by finding the bodies of the drowned, and landing them ashore 'with their pockets allus inside out' for the sake of the reward offered for their recovery? As far as we can make out, no. We have been at some trouble to inquire from men who should know; watermen, who have lived on the river nigh all their lives, if they have seen late at night a dark boat with a solitary occupant, drifting down the river on the 'look out,' plying his frightful trade? The answer has uniformly been 'No, we have never seen such men,' and more, they do not believe in their existence." |
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