{"product_id":"our-mutual-friend-introduction-by-andrew-sanders-hardcover","title":"Our Mutual Friend: Introduction by Andrew Sanders - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCharles Dickens\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAndrew Sanders\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen John Harmon--who has been left a fortune if he will marry the girl his miserly father chose for him--is found floating dead in the Thames, he sets in motion a story overflowing with cases of deception and mistaken identity, of murder and attempted murder, of sin and redemption. The influence of the notorious Harmon inheritance ripples through a large cast of vividly drawn characters from every level of society, including Noddy Boffin, known as \"the Golden Dustman\"; the one-legged villain Silas Wegg; willful Bella Wilfer; saintly Lizzie Hexam; the sharp-witted doll's dressmaker Jenny Wren; the social-climbing Veneerings; the ruthless speculator Fascination Fledgeby; and the river-scavenging corpse robbers Gaffer Hexam and Rogue Riderhood. Out of this flurry of invention Dickens creates in \u003ci\u003eOur Mutual Friend\u003c\/i\u003e a portrait of a city and a civilization that is at once indignant, compassionate, and utterly unforgettable. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCharles Dickens's last completed novel features one of his most surreal and haunting visions of London, shadowed by towering dust heaps that supply the corrupting riches at the heart of the plot and washed by the dark river that winds its way insistently through the story. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis edition reprints the original Everyman's preface by G. K. Chesterton and features forty illustrations by Marcus Stone.\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Our Mutual Friend' is crammed with narratives of concealment and mistaken identity, of murder and attempted murder, of sin and redemption, and is continually propelled by a satiric impulse and a theatricality almost surreal in their power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. At age eleven, Dickens was taken out of school and sent to work in London backing warehouse, where his job was to paste labels on bottles for six shillings a week. His father John Dickens, was a warmhearted but improvident man. When he was condemned the Marshela Prison for unpaid debts, he unwisely agreed that Charles should stay in lodgings and continue working while the rest of the family joined him in jail. This three-month separation caused Charles much pain; his experiences as a child alone in a huge city-cold, isolated with barely enough to eat-haunted him for the rest of his life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to school, after which he became an office boy, a freelance reporter and finally an author. With \u003ci\u003ePickwick Papers\u003c\/i\u003e (1836-7) he achieved immediate fame; in a few years he was easily the post popular and respected writer of his time. It has been estimated that one out of every ten persons in Victorian England was a Dickens reader. \u003ci\u003eOliver Twist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1837), \u003ci\u003eNicholas Nickleby \u003c\/i\u003e(1838-9) and \u003ci\u003eThe Old Curiosity Shop \u003c\/i\u003e(1840-41) were huge successes. \u003ci\u003eMartin Chuzzlewit \u003c\/i\u003e(1843-4) was less so, but Dickens followed it with his unforgettable, \u003ci\u003eA Christmas Carol \u003c\/i\u003e(1843), \u003ci\u003eBleak House \u003c\/i\u003e(1852-3), \u003ci\u003eHard Times\u003c\/i\u003e (1854) and\u003ci\u003e Little Dorrit \u003c\/i\u003e(1855-7)\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ereveal his deepening concern for the injustices of British Society. \u003ci\u003eA Tale of Two Cities \u003c\/i\u003e(1859), \u003ci\u003eGreat Expectations\u003c\/i\u003e (1860-1) and \u003ci\u003eOur Mutual Friend \u003c\/i\u003e(1864-5) complete his major works. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDickens's marriage to Catherine Hoggarth produced ten children but ended in separation in 1858. In that year he began a series of exhausting public readings; his health gradually declined. After putting in a full day's work at his home at Gads Hill, Kent on June 8, 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke, and he died the following day.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 880\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.7 x 8.2 x 5.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 10, 1994\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \u003cdiv\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAccelerated Reader:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \n                \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eQuiz Name:\u003c\/strong\u003e Our Mutual Friend\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \n                \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eInterest Level:\u003c\/strong\u003e Upper Grades, 9-12\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \n                \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReading Level:\u003c\/strong\u003e 8.8\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \n                \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePoint Value:\u003c\/strong\u003e 61\u003c\/div\u003e\n                ","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51756917588256,"sku":"9780679420286","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/d47753714b6db324e87a4c052bd1df51.webp?v=1780089157","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/our-mutual-friend-introduction-by-andrew-sanders-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}