The New York Times said of Our Mutual Friend, the last novel completed by Dickens, that for most readers it would "be considered his best." While expressing all the humanism and humor of Dickens's early work, Our Mutual Friend is also the author's most modern novel and one of his most sophisticated. The book's themes include the search for identity, the extravagance of wealth, and the dispersal of self, but at the heart of the novel, as with all of Dickens's best works, are the characters. Both thoughtful and whimsical, and at times uproariously funny, this novel is a must for Dickens readers.