PBA Galleries

20 parts in 19, as issued. 40 plates. (8vo) 22x14 cm (8¾x5½"), original pictorial blue wrappers, housed together in custom clamshell box. First Edition, parts issue.

Dickens' penultimate novel, here in its first appearance in the parts issue. Our Mutual Friend contained more pages of advertising and advertising slips than any other novel in parts by Dickens, and it is rare to find sets that contain all the ads as described by Hatton & Cleaver; this copy is no exception, but it does have the majority of them. Of the 320 pages of advertisements, all are present. Of the 89 individual inserted ads and slips, 83 are present: lacking is Hatton & Cleaver's slip number 4 in part 2; slip number 2 in part 8; inserted ad number 4 in part 9; both examples of the "scarce" "Economic Life Assurance Society" ads in parts 14 & 18; and ad number 2 in the back of part 16. The often lacking "Foreign Bank Notes" slip in part 19/20 is present, and the uncommon typo of 31 for 13 is present in the advertisements in part 10. Hatton & Cleaver, pages 345-370; NCBEL III, 806