# Is "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, London, 1864) is identified by: True first is the serial issue in original green pictorial printed wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double number), May 1864 - November 1865. The census is right that the parts precede the book and right on publisher, but 'twenty monthly parts' is imprecise: 20 numbers were issued in 19 monthly parts, the last a double number.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the serial issue in original green pictorial printed wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double number), May 1864 - November 1865
- Complete sets have a wood-engraved frontispiece and 39 plates after Marcus Stone, engraved by Dalziel and W. T. Green
- Two first-issue points are documented: the front wrapper of Part 1 WITHOUT the printer's imprint at the foot, and the misprint 'pricipal' for 'principal' at p
- 115 (falling in No
- XIV of the parts; p
- 115 of vol
- Publisher imprint reads Chapman and Hall, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Dickens |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall, London |
| Year | 1864 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the serial issue in original green pictorial printed wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first is the serial issue in original green pictorial printed wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double number), May 1864 - November 1865. Complete sets have a wood-engraved frontispiece and 39 plates after Marcus Stone, engraved by Dalziel and W. T. Green. Two first-issue points are documented: the front wrapper of Part 1 WITHOUT the printer's imprint at the foot, and the misprint 'pricipal' for 'principal' at p. 115 (falling in No. XIV of the parts; p. 115 of vol. II in the two-volume book edition). Our Mutual Friend carries more advertising than any other Dickens novel in parts - roughly 320 pages plus inserted slips - and completeness is judged against Hatton & Cleaver. The first book edition (2 vols, 1865) is bound in dark reddish-brown sand-grain cloth, spines richly gilt, covers blind-stamped with a rule border and a decorative rounded arch-frame; it carries the three-page postscript at the rear of vol. II, and an errata slip is occasionally found tipped in before p. 1 of vol. I. Referenced as Gimbel A149, Hatton & Cleaver pp. 343-370, Eckel pp. 94-95. Dealers describe the wrapper color as green; a minority say blue. No dust jacket was issued at this date.

## Is this the true first?
The census is right that the parts precede the book and right on publisher, but 'twenty monthly parts' is imprecise: 20 numbers were issued in 19 monthly parts, the last a double number. The true first is the parts issue, May 1864 - November 1865 - not the 1865 volumes; the census's true-first year should read 1864-1865. Both are collected: (1) the 19/20 parts in original green pictorial wrappers, and (2) the first edition in book form, Chapman and Hall, 1865, in two volumes (title pages state 'In Two Volumes', 'Vol. I' / 'Vol. II'), a deviation from Dickens's former practice. This was the last novel Dickens completed. No American edition holds precedence over the London parts.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue at this date. Traps: made-up and rebacked parts sets; sets missing the Advertiser and the inserted slips called for by Hatton & Cleaver (the 'Economic Life Assurance Society' slip in parts 14 and 19/20 is notably rare); and Part 1 wrappers WITH the printer's imprint at foot, which are the later state. Copies reading 'principal' correctly at p. 115 are the corrected state. Two-volume sets rebound from parts sheets are common and are not the wrappered first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Our Mutual Friend* by Charles Dickens a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/our-mutual-friend
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.