Book Review - Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

With this, completing 11 of 339 from The Rory Gilmore Reading List.

2/5 stars

"No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot."

This is the only book among the eleven books I've read that disappointed me the most. The first few chapters came with a bang, especially the first chapter and set my hopes really high not to mention the fact that I must be in for something good because I was reading a book by Dickens. Wasn't I? It really didn't feel like. Alright, I've to give it to Dickens for the first few chapters, but rest of book was trash. Let's just say I'm glad I'm done with the book so that I can now tick it off my tbr list and move on to the next one.

I've read only three books by him including Our Mutual Friend. I loved reading A Christmas Carol as well as Great Expectations and you know about Our Mutual Friend. Although, I'm not giving up on Dickens. Actually, I've plans of reading all of his works. I know, some will be good, some will be bad but you have to read Dickens, don't you think? After all, he has given so much to the field of literature. Also, are you even a reader if you haven't read a book by Dickens?


I opened the book to this beautiful illustrated first page of my copy of Our Mutual Friend, the last complete novels by Charles Dickens. Reading the first chapter, I knew I was in for another five star read. But, everything ended up going in the opposite direction.

"In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in."

Had you opened a book to these opening lines, would you not feel : Wow! I'm going to have a great time with the book? The first chapter was one of the best opening chapters I've read so far. It was simply PERFECT.

A man and his daughter rowing a boat and discussing about something that was making me feel uncomfortable. I was like, I want to know them. I want to know what happened to them. Why that happened to them and how is that going to change things for them. The next few chapters were introduction to new characters that made me feel it will be interesting untangling the knots. As the chapters kept moving, I realized it was going into depth of these new side characters which, frankly speaking, I wasn't paying much head into. I wanted to know about Lizzie. I wanted to learn more about her. Alas, that didn't happen. Then, I made peace with it expecting at least a satisfying ending. But, No. Why Charles Dickens?

It wasn't only the huge number of unnecessary side characters that destroyed the story for me, it was also the numerous irrelevant subplots that made my reading experience pathetic. Those were my two main problems reading the novel. Overall, the experience was confusing, difficult to follow and majorly boring. I could have held with the bad experience had the ending been worth the pain. The ending was so disappointing. The way the story ended, from my point of view, it was impossible to feel satisfied, especially after reading 820 pages. The only reason I read Our Mutual Friend is because of Dickens and I will still continue to read his other novels.

I might also count Our Mutual Friend among my worst reads of 2022. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the day when I can say - 'This is why I read Dickens'. Till then, happy reading y'all.

Review Posted: 01 September 2022.