My third Back to the Classics Challenge read was Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. This was for the A 19th Century Classic category, any book published between 1800 and 1899. OMF was published serially between 1864 and 1865. It is a chunkster of a book at over 800 pages and it is also a crazy read!
The book has many different storylines and all of them weave together to show the contrast between the haves and have-nots and that there are good and bad people in both groups -- and that moving from one group to the other may change how good or bad you remain. I honestly couldn't get enough of this story. After a couple hundred pages, I downloaded the audiobook so that I could keep going even when the heavy book wasn't convenient to lug around. (Simon Vance's narration was fantastic! I think it might have been my first audiobook of his.) Some might find the beginning slow as all of the different groups and people are introduced but the wait was worth it. Dickens was much more progressive in this story on some of the things readers complain about in his earlier novels. I can only hope that this was because his views matured and not just that the times changed and he was writing to the audience.
Pinching my pennies,
K
I keep meaning to read this. I somehow missed it when I was in my Dickens phase when I was younger. But I want to get back to it.
ReplyDeleteI think this one will prompt a second Dickens phase for me (after a long break due to not getting past the first 20 or so pages of Pickwick Papers).
DeleteThis is the Dickens novel that is on my TBR shelf. I'm really glad to hear that it's so good!
ReplyDeleteIt definitely felt more modern than his earlier books, both in language and in the progressive politics. I hope that you get to it!
DeleteThere is a BBC adaption that I definitely recommend.
ReplyDeleteOoh, good to know! I loved the parts where I listened because this is such a great visual story.
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