Our Mutual Friend Considered lurid and shocking by

Considered lurid and shocking by mid-19th-century standards

ceiling decorations

keenly drawn

designs suggestive of cross-stitching

Reprint of the Scientific American Books

Our Mutual Friend Considered lurid and shocking by"Of all the Dickens Ive read Our Mutual Friend remains my favorite." Jane Smiley. A young man returns from abroad to claim his inheritance but he never arrives and is presumed to have drowned in the Thames. Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, a warmhearted, working class couple, are the next heirs in line, and their generosity is tested when their windfall opens the door to a vast gallery of scoundrels, strivers, and social climbers. Charles Dickens's genius for