Our Mutual Friend. by DICKENS, Charles - 1865

London: Chapman and Hall,, 1865. 2 volumes, octavo. Original purple cloth, spines lettered in gilt, sides blocked in blind, yellow endpapers. Wood engraved frontispiece and 38 wood-engraved plates after Marcus Stone. Spines faded, ends a little frayed with a little loss to foot of vol. II, couple of tips worn, edges slightly rubbed, contents slightly foxed. A very good, sound set. First edition in book form. Dickens's last completed novel, "Our Mutual Friend had a mixed reception (the young Henry James's harshly dismissive review in The Nation is notorious) but its stock has risen dramatically in recent years and it is now generally regarded as one of his very greatest works" (ODNB). The novel was initially serialized in monthly parts from from May 1864 to November 1865; the first volume was published in book form in January 1865, the second in October 1865 (preceding its completion in parts). Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction, 697; Smith I, 15; Wolff 1809.