OUR MUTUAL FRIEND

London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. 2 volumes. First edition, with the three page Postscript by Dickens at the end of Volume II, and with the rare slip to the reader in Vol. I. Illustrated with 40 engraved plates by Marcus Stone. 8vo, bound in contemporary three-quarter rich purple-brown morocco over purple moire cloth covered boards, the boards ruled in gilt at the morocco borders, the spines with raised bands separating compartments richly gilt in paneled designs, two compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, end-papers and page edges handsomely marbled. xi, 320; viii, 309 pp. A very fine copy and thus rare, beautifully preserved, the bindings and text-blocks and illustrations all in excellent order and virtually without evidence of use or wear. A beautiful set. FIRST EDITION AND A BEAUTIFUL COPY IN AN EXCELLENT STATE OF PRESERVATION. This was the second to last book that Dickens would write, and the last one that he would actually finish. The years shortly before the publication of OUR MUTUAL FRIEND were fraught with domestic sorrow that would lead to his eventual decline. He separated from his wife Catherine in 1858 after his admiration for the young actress Ellen Ternan strained his already deteriorating marriage. He further had to defend himself against scandal and protest his innocence when wagging tongues of gossip linked his name to his sister-in-law Georgina’s who had served as his housekeeper for many years. He threw his restless energy into increased productivity and public readings of his work, both of which were physically and emotionally exhausting. He suffered from recurrent illnesses during the creation of OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, but nonetheless managed to maintain the level of genius in his prose that had pervaded his previous works. He died unexpectedly only five years later, while he was writing THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD.
He had, with this novel, “...for the first time given serious consideraiton to the theme of unrequited love. In earlier books it may have been secret or ill-timed, but there was always and equilibrium in which both parties seem to accept that they loved or can be loved; and that, when eventually they declare their love, it is not rejected.” But “there is torture in love, and despair, and madness. There is some necessary connection between courtship and death...so tht...it is possible to trace the strange curve of Dickens’ temperment exploring extremity in art if not necessarily life.” (Ackroyd, 955)
Like most of Dickens’ work, OUR MUTUAL FRIEND was published in monthly serial parts, the first in May of 1864 and the last in November of 1865. This two-volume set was released almost immediately after the issue of the final episode. An extremely well-preserved set of the first edition of one of Dickens’ final efforts.