THE SCHOLARLY PAGES

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BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNTS
Following are a few biographical accounts of Dickens during the writing and publication of Our Mutual Friend:

• John Forster: "OUR MUTUAL FRIEND"
• Edgar Johnson: Dickens's apology for Fagin
• The Staplehurst Disaster: 9 June 1865

SOURCES AND HISTORY OF COMPOSITION

• Dickens's Manuscript and Number Plans for Our Mutual Friend
• Letter to Forster, 30 August 1863
• Letter to Forster, October 1863
• Letter to Marcus Stone, 23 February 1864
• Letter to Forster, 29 July 1864
• "The Composition, Publication, and Reception of
  Our Mutual Friend," an aritcle on Dickens and serialization, by Professor Robert L. Patten

CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

• London Review, 30 April 1864 (first British review)
• Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1864
  (first American review)
• London Review, 3 June 1865 (critical of Stone)
• The New York Times, 22 November 1865
  (review of first American book edition)
• E.S. Dallas in The Times, 29 November 1865
  (..."we class it with Mr. Dickens's best works.")
• Henry James in The Nation, 21 December 1865
  (..."the poorest of Mr. Dickens's works.")