Our Mutual Friend (THE GREAT CLASSICS LIBRARY)

Before its cameo on the hit show "Lost", this novel had a certain celebrity of its own. The opening alone would make it memorable, a bit of the Gothic that also paints the Hexams' poverty in the most desperate terms. This followed so soon by a society dinner. Dickens has his usual field day with the better-off class of arriviste, but also rather grimly shows when aspirations turn sour at the lower end of the economic scale as well. Bradley Headstone (subtle) is a cousin to Shakespeare's Angelo and Sophocles' Creon in his twisted rigidity. As always with Dickens, there is ample entertainment, wonderfully and randomly eccentric characters and more than a little pathos. All this and a mystery too (though Dickens took it lightly and rather expected the reader to get it early on).