Author: Charles Dickens

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 9781331246695

Excerpt from Our Mutual Friend, Vol. 1 of 2 This romance was published in monthly numbers, extending from May, 1864, to November, Dickens had con ceived some of the characters and incidents of the story as far back as 1861. The feeling of improbability, which the least critical reader experiences in following the course of the narra tive, is partly accounted for by the way in which the author picked up its materials. Almost everything in it is excep tional; but it may be said that portions which shock even the eager and ready credulity of the ordinary novel reader were founded on facts. In his wanderings by the banks of the Thames, he had seen hand-bills posted up, indicating that fishing for the bodies of persons drowned in the river was a regular business of some degraded watermen; and his ready imagination suggested the characters of Hexam and Rogue Riderhood. At Chatham, while once walking with Leech, the artist, both were struck and amused by Observing a father and son together, the uneducated father in fustian and the educated boy in spectacles. Charley Hexam was the exten sion of the educated boy Marcus Stone, the illustrator of Our Mutual Friend, had discovered a queer character engaged in a strange trade, and carried Dickens to see him; and the result was the introduction into the story of Mr. Venus, preserver of animals and birds, and articulator of human bones. Mr. Riah, the patriarchal and benevolent old Jew, was made quite a prominent character in the book, be cause a Jewish lady, whom Dickens highly esteemed, consid ered that Fagin, in Oliver Twist, was calculated to bring reproach on the Jewish religion as well as on the Jewish race. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.