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Our Mutual Friend

By Charles Dickens

Recommended By William Boyd

This was the last completed novel that Dickens wrote before he died and I believe it’s his masterwork. It is also the great novel about London and all its strata of social types. Funny, complex, dark in places, it gives us a tantalising indication of what direction Dickens’ writing might have taken had he lived longer.
~ William Boyd
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Publish Date: 1864-1865

Upon his death, an old miser leaves his fortune to his son, who at the time is away from the country, on condition that he marries Bella Wilfer, a woman he has never met. As he is presumed dead, the inheritance goes to Boffin, the miser’s former servant, but John is in fact alive and intrigues himself into the life of the Boffins as secretary John Rokesmith. Through twists and turns, he wins Bella’s love and marries her, finally revealing his true identity and taking possession of his father’s fortune.

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