OUR MUTUAL FRIEND

London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. 2 volumes bound as one, retaining both original titlepages. First edition. Numerous illustrations by Marcus Stone. 8vo, in contemporary three-quarter pebble near black dark green morocco over marbled boards. The spines finely decorated with multi-ruled gilt framed compartments bordered with floral vine tools separated by raised gilt decorated bands, two compartments gilt lettered, edges marbled. xi, 320; [3], viii, 306. A very nice and proper copy, the text very clean and fresh and solid, the binding with some expected age mellowing but still quite handsome. FIRST EDITION, 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.
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.