Our Mutual Friends

[katriona_s]

I am not a fan of Charles Dickens' stories. I have read (the Japanese translations of) some of his most popular novels as "Christmas Carol", "Oliver Twist", "David Copperfield", "A tale of Two Cities" in my twenties, and none of them have impressed me much. Though, some years ago I have happened to read his "Our Mutual Friend" and was fascinated by its various charming characters. Quite fortunately the translation was very good, this might be one of the reasons why I found this story very interesting. This book is not very popular here, first I borrowed that Japanese translation from the local library for they were long out of print. I wanted to have my own books, found and bought the secondhand ones from Amazon - they are a series of paperbacks, originally with reasonable prices but the secondhand prices are shockingly high, about three times the original prices X( , still I think they are worth the money :) Anyway, now I'm rereading this book in the evening, and enjoying much. This is a book about (mainly) two love stories but I enjoy this long novel as the multi-protagonist story, for many of the characters are so attractive. For example Jenny Wren (how can the readers dislike her?), and Alfred & Sophronia lammle(they are the villains, but how vividly they are described!) . And Dickens' writing in this book is so skillful and humorous. This is one of the books I can enjoy anytime. I was very fortunate to meet this book :)

Comments

[vilakins]

I haven't read that one - interesting! I will have to see if they have it at the library.

[katriona_s]

I hope you’d find the book and enjoy it! :)

[vera_j]

Well, this is great! I do know too well the university load of compulsory literature both British and American and yes, Dickens was there too. I liked his books - but I didn´t return to them again. Classical literature is not bad...mostly. For you, reading about a different culture and from different times, it must be really demanding. That´s why I admire you for your choice.:-)

[katriona_s]

Haha, but I read these books in Japanese translation, not original English ;)

Maybe because our language is so different from English or European languages, we have had good translators for over 100 years, especially in old time most of the translators were the skillful authors. So we Japanese ordinary readers can enjoy the foreign literature :)