Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend is the last completed novel written by Charles Dickens. The book is largely believed to be the most challenging that Dickens produced and is known for the seemingly rushed ending. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse also mention in a NY Times article that they could personally relate to Dickens.

The novel is about the son of a tycoon who must marry a specific woman to inherit his father's fortune. He shuns this, leaves, and is presumed drowned which is untrue. He returns under a new identity, gets hired at a company related to his father, marries the same woman on his own merit, not on his father's riches, and only afterwards, assumes his original identity and inherits his fortune.

In Lost

This is the book Desmond carried around to read last before he dies. Penelope placed a letter of her love and undying devotion in the book, intending Desmond to read it while in prison. However, he never found the letter until he was in the Swan, as he checked the book into prison storage with the rest of his personal inventory.

Desmond also hid the key to activate the Fail Safe in this book.

Theories

• The story of Desmond will closely follow that of the main character in Our Mutual Friend; therefore, Penelope is the main character's love and Charles Widmore is the business tycoon. The story is slightly different in that Penelope is the one forced by her father (Charles Widmore) to marry a certain person, rather than Desmond, and Desmond is the one who is offered the money. Desmond's disappearance while sailing in the race and getting shipwrecked on the island, however, parallels the character in Our Mutual Friend being believed dead. When Desmond leaves the island, he will return home, win back Penelope, and regain his identity.
• Desmond is a sort of Mutual Friend as in he met both Jack and Libby prior to the crash.

See also

• Appearance of Literary Works