Description

This final novel by renowned author Charles Dickens explores the meaning of value, both financial and moral. The novel begins with a death: a rich, cranky miser has passed away, leaving his estate to his estranged son John Harmon, who must return from South Africa to claim it. The miser has included an odd stipulation in the will—in order to claim his inheritance, John must marry a woman he has never met, Bella Wilfer. But when a body is found floating in the Thames River, it appears to be John Harmon, who has presumably drowned. A mysterious young man who gives his name as Julius Handford is present when the body is pulled from the river, but he soon disappears. The money goes to Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, the miser's faithful employees. Out of the kindness of their hearts, they take in Bella, the disappointed bride. Julius Handford appears again and volunteers to serve as a secretary to the Boffins, but he has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the family. He falls in love with Bella, who initially refuses to accept him, but begins to feel sympathy for him when Mr. Boffin begins to mistreat him. It becomes increasingly clear that Julius Handford is not who he claims to be, and as the final revelation takes shape, Dickens demonstrates that love must be separated from money.

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was uniquely successful as a writer during his lifetime, enjoying huge followings from readers and audiences in England and America. When, early in life, sudden misfortune sent his family into extreme poverty, the young Charles was sent to work in a factory. Never forgetting this childhood misery, Dickens wrote often in later life about the plights of the working poor. As a young man he became a law clerk and stenographer, moving into journalism in the 1830s. Dickens's early journalistic sketches formed the basis for his first literary works. With the 1836 serialized publication of The Pickwick Papers, his unparalleled success as an author began. Dickens went on to write such famous novels as David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Barnaby Rudge, Hard Times, and Bleak House, with all of his works remaining in print to this day.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

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 ...