Our Mutual Friend was Charles Dickens‘s fourteenth and last completed novel, published between 1864 and 1865.
Setting.
Our Mutual Friend is set around the backdrop of the rubbish piles of Victorian society. When an heir to a fortune built on rubbish is found dead the money goes to an illiterate servant whose character takes on a sinister turn.
Publication.
Our Mutual Friend was first serialised between May 1864 to November 1865 in twenty monthly parts, published in nineteen issues (the last being a customary double-issue). It was also first released in two-volume novel form, the first volume appearing in February and the second in November. The novel is divided into four books. It was originally illustrated by Marcus Stone.
Popularity.
In late 2019, Our Mutual Friend featured in a list of one hundred English language novels written over the last 300 years that have had an impact on the lives of a panel of leading writers, curators and critics. It was the only Dickens’ work to make the list. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/494P41NCbVYHlY319VwGbxp/explore-the-list-of-100-novels-that-shaped-our-world.
Discover Our Mutual Friend.
You can read all of Our Mutual Friend on The Circumlocution Office, discover the main characters or read leading quotations from the novel. If you want the location of particular Our Mutual Friend pages or chapters for reference or academic purposes you can use our study links page.