Previous
Mortimer Lightwood
Riah is a Jewish man who acts as the public face of Pubsey and Co., a company that Mr. Fledgeby secretly runs. Riah endures harshly anti-Semitic abuse from his boss, Fledgeby, even though he is loyal. On Fledgeby’s behalf, Riah calls in several debts, financially ruining people like Alfred, Sophronia, and Twemlow, with Riah taking the blame for everything. Still, despite these actions, it is clear that Riah isn’t a greedy man, as he selflessly helps Lizzie hide during her time of need and forms a close “godmother”-like bond with Jenny Wren. This ultimately leads him to quit his job and reject Fledgeby’s greed. Riah is a rejection of Jewish stereotypes, as he is clearly not the greedy moneylender that Fledgeby tries to make him out to be.
Mr. Riah Quotes in Our Mutual Friend
The Our Mutual Friend quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Riah or refer to Mr. Riah. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 3, Chapter 1
Quotes
It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither. [...] From any point of the high ridge of land northward, it might have been discerned that the loftiest buildings made an occasional struggle to get their heads above the foggy sea, and especially that the great dome of Saint Paul’s seemed to die hard; but this was not perceivable in the streets at their feet, where the whole metropolis was a heap of vapour charged with muffled sound of wheels, and enfolding a gigantic catarrh.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 9
Quotes
For it is not, in Christian countries, with the Jews as with other peoples. Men say, “This is a bad Greek, but there are good Greeks. This is a bad Turk, but there are good Turks.” Not so with the Jews. Men find the bad among us easily enough—among what peoples are the bad not easily found?—but they take the worst of us as samples of the best; they take the lowest of us as presentations of the highest; and they say “All Jews are alike.”
Get the entire Our Mutual Friend LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mr. Riah Quotes in Our Mutual Friend
The Our Mutual Friend quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Riah or refer to Mr. Riah. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 3, Chapter 1
Quotes
It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither. [...] From any point of the high ridge of land northward, it might have been discerned that the loftiest buildings made an occasional struggle to get their heads above the foggy sea, and especially that the great dome of Saint Paul’s seemed to die hard; but this was not perceivable in the streets at their feet, where the whole metropolis was a heap of vapour charged with muffled sound of wheels, and enfolding a gigantic catarrh.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 9
Quotes
For it is not, in Christian countries, with the Jews as with other peoples. Men say, “This is a bad Greek, but there are good Greeks. This is a bad Turk, but there are good Turks.” Not so with the Jews. Men find the bad among us easily enough—among what peoples are the bad not easily found?—but they take the worst of us as samples of the best; they take the lowest of us as presentations of the highest; and they say “All Jews are alike.”
