Our Mutual Friend by Dickens, Charles - 1865

London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. First edition. Hardcover. Orig. green wrappers housed in very good maroon leatherette chemise and slipcase, backstrip lettered in gilt. Stone, Marcus. 626 pages in text. 22 x 13.5 cm. First edition in the original 20 issues in 19 parts, with 40 inserted plates by Marcus Stone. The title to the book was selected four years before the issue, but Dickens' effort to keep "All The Year Round" afloat, and his illnesses compelled him to write at a diminished speed......Thirty thousand copies were sold of the first number [see: ECKEL p.94]. With page "31" misprint instead of "13" in number ten, and Our Mutual Advertiser in each issue. Lacking the scarce 4-page inset of "The Economic Life Assurance Society" in no. 14, but retaining the "Foreign Bank Notes" slip in nos. 19/20. HATTON & CLEAVER pp. 345-370. A few numbers with corner tears and creases, twelve issue have their backstrips restored, the plates generally clean, practically all with the original tissue guards.