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Our Mutual Friend de Charles Dickens

Our Mutual Friend

Autor Charles Dickens
en Limba Engleză Paperback

În „Our Mutual Friend”, descoperim o confruntare mută, dar violentă, între forțele regeneratoare ale apei și mizeria sufocantă a lăcomiei umane. Tensiunea centrală se naște la granița dintre supraviețuirea brutală și aspirația spre respectabilitate, totul sub privirea rece a unei Londre ce pare construită din noroi și praf. Remarcăm cum Charles Dickens, ajuns la apogeul măiestriei sale, transformă Tamisa dintr-un simplu decor într-un personaj omniscient, un depozitar al secretelor și al morții, unde Gaffer Hexam și fiica sa, Lizzie, pescuiesc nu pești, ci destine frânte. Stilul are ceva din proza densă și panoramică din Little Dorrit, fără să fie o imitație — aici, satira este mai ascuțită, iar atmosfera mai sumbră, reflectând o maturitate artistică ce nu se mai mulțumește cu soluții facile. Dacă în A Tale of Two Cities autorul explora cataclismul istoric, în acest ultim roman finalizat el se apleacă asupra cataclismului moral provocat de „bani, bani, bani”. Structura este una de o complexitate remarcabilă, împletind misterul identității lui John Harmon cu destinele unor personaje memorabile precum Bella Wilfer. Ritmul este deliberat, oferind cititorului timp să observe detaliile sordide ale mormanelor de gunoi care, paradoxal, constituie sursa bogăției în această societate victoriană târzie. Este o operă care încheie parcursul literar al lui Charles Dickens nu printr-o concluzie liniștitoare, ci printr-o interogație profundă asupra valorii umane într-o lume dominată de posesiuni.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781548345129
ISBN-10: 1548345121
Pagini: 392
Dimensiuni: 216 x 279 x 21 mm
Greutate: 0.91 kg

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această lucrare celor care doresc să exploreze latura cea mai sofisticată și întunecată a geniului dickensian. Cititorul va câștiga o perspectivă unică asupra Londrei victoriene, dincolo de clișeele de epocă, descoperind un roman despre transformare și identitate. Este o lectură esențială pentru fanii literaturii clasice care apreciază criticile sociale subtile și personajele cu o psihologie stratificată.

Despre autor

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) este recunoscut drept cel mai important romancier al epocii victoriene și un critic social neobosit. Experiența sa timpurie de lucru într-o fabrică de cremă de ghete, în timp ce tatăl său era închis pentru datorii, i-a marcat profund opera, insuflându-i o empatie rară pentru clasele defavorizate. Autor a 15 romane, printre care David Copperfield și Great Expectations, Dickens a revoluționat literatura prin publicarea în foileton și prin capacitatea sa de a crea personaje iconice care au rămas vii în conștiința universală. „Our Mutual Friend” reprezintă testamentul său literar finalizat, o sinteză a geniului său satiric.

Descriere scurtă

Our Mutual Friend, written in the years 1864-65, is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining savage satire with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller (quoting from the character Bella Wilfer in the book), "money, money, money, and what money can make of life." In the opening chapters a body is found in the Thames and identified as that of John Harmon, a young man recently returned to London to receive his inheritance. Were he alive, his father's will would require him to marry Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom he had never met. Instead, the money passes to the working-class Boffins, and the effects spread into various corners of London society. Having made his fortune from London's rubbish, a rich misanthropic miser dies, estranged from all except his faithful employees Mr and Mrs Boffin. By his will, his fortune goes to his estranged son John Harmon, who is to return from where he has settled abroad (possibly in South Africa) to claim it, on condition that he marries a woman he has never met, Miss Bella Wilfer. The implementation of the will is in the charge of the solicitor, Mortimer Lightwood, who has no other practice. Before the son and heir can claim his inheritance, he goes missing, presumed drowned, at the end of his journey back to London. A body is found in the Thames by Gaffer Hexam, a waterman who makes his living by retrieving corpses and robbing them of valuables, before handing them over to the authorities. Papers in the pockets of the drowned man identify him as the heir, John Harmon. Present at the identification is a mysterious young man, who gives his name as Julius Handford and then disappears. By the terms of the miser's will, the whole estate then devolves upon Mr and Mrs Boffin, naive and good-hearted people who wish to enjoy it for themselves and to share it with others. They take the disappointed bride of the drowned heir, Miss Wilfer, into their household, and treat her as their pampered child and heiress. They also accept an offer from Julius Handford, now going under the name of John Rokesmith, to serve as their confidential secretary and man of business, at no salary. Rokesmith uses this position to watch and learn everything about the Boffins, Miss Wilfer, and the aftershock of the drowning of the heir John Harmon. Mr Boffin engages a one-legged ballad-seller, Silas Wegg, to read aloud to him in the evenings, and Wegg tries to take advantage of his position and of Mr Boffin's good heart to obtain other advantages from the wealthy dustman. Having persuaded Mr Boffin to move to a larger house, he himself takes possession of their former home, in the yard of which stand several mounds of "dust" remaining from Mr Harmon's business. Wegg hopes to find hidden treasure there. Gaffer Hexam, who found the body, is accused of murdering John Harmon by a fellow-waterman, Roger "Rogue" Riderhood, who is bitter at having been cast off as Hexam's partner on the river, and who covets the large reward offered in relation to the murder. As a result of the accusation, Hexam is shunned by his fellows on the river, and excluded from The Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters, the public house they frequent. Hexam's young son, the clever but priggish Charley Hexam, leaves his father's house to better himself at school, and to train to be a schoolmaster, encouraged by his sister, the beautiful Lizzie Hexam. Meanwhile, Lizzie stays with her father, to whom she is devoted.

Descriere

Descriere de la o altă ediție sau format:
Following his father's death John Harmon returns to London to claim his inheritance, but he finds he is eligible only if he marries Bella Wilfur. To observe her character he assumes another identity and secures work with his father's foreman, Mr Boffin, who is also Bella's guardian.Disguise and concealment play an important role in the novel and individual identity is examined within the wider setting of London life: in the 1860s the city was aflame with spiralling financial speculation while thousands of homeless scratched a living from the detritus of the more fortunate-indeed John Harmon's father has amassed his wealth by recycling waste.This edition includes extensive explanatory notes and significant manuscript variants. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Notă biografică

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction.

Recenzii

"Our Mutual Friend made me want to be a writer."
--Zoe Heller, Guardian

"Dickens wasn't just telling a story, but drawing a panoramic picture of his times, full of detail about the way the Victorians lived, loved and thought. Our Mutual Friend is superbly constructed -- part social satire, part murder mystery, part love story. It is crowded with memorable characters: the aspirational Veneerings, the playboy lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, and the heroines: giddy-minded Bella Wilfur and saintly Lizzy Hexam."
--Independent

"Perhaps his greatest work. The great novel of London: dark, wise, unsentimental."
--William Boyd, Newsweek

"Our Mutual Friend made me want to be a writer" -- Zoe Heller Guardian "Dickens wasn't just telling a story, but drawing a panoramic picture of his times, full of detail about the way the Victorians lived, loved and thought. Our Mutual Friend is superbly constructed - part social satire, part murder mystery, part love story. It is crowded with memorable characters: the aspirational Veneerings, the playboy lawyer Eugene Wrayburn, and the heroines: giddy-minded Bella Wilfur and saintly Lizzy Hexam" Independent "Our Mutual Friend disturbs us to the root of our being...terribly great" -- John Sutherland "Perhaps his greatest work. The great novel of London: dark, wise, unsentimental" -- William Boyd Newsweek "Charles Dickens is the greatest novelist in the English language" -- Peter Ackroyd