Barnes & Noble Digital Library

Dickens’s last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend has been called one of his most gratifying works. The story centers on the inheritance gained by ownership of a dust-heap. The would-be heir, John Harmon, is found dead in the Thames and the fortune falls into the hands of Mr. Boffin, a kind but lowly clerk who becomes a mogul as a result. Enlivened—as are all Dickens’s novels—with a vivid cast of characters worthy of their names, Our Mutual Friend is a masterpiece of the all-corrupting power of wealth.