ABSTRACT
Our Mutual Friend was noticed 41 times in England and the United States during April 1864–April 1866 in forms ranging from long and full critical reviews to relatively short announcements of the novel's appearance to brief, monthly, mostly uncritical synopses of its action. The chapter illustrates the workings of the critical trend, which saw Charles Dickens fall out of favor with midcentury reviewers even as his popularity with middle-class readers soared. It tries to show the particular critical response to Our Mutual Friend, and—by situating it within the broader trajectory of Victorian reviews of Dickens—to demonstrate that this response was nearly 30 years in the making, and that it was certainly no dismal swamp. Dickens's pleasure at being reviewed favorably by Dallas a critic was genuine, perhaps the more so because Dallas's review complained about certain features of the novel.
