CRITICISM

Baker, Robert S. “Imagination and Literacy in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.” Criticism 18, no. 1 (Winter 1976): 57-72.

Examines the connection between literacy and the moral issues Dickens addressed in the novel.

Cotsell, Michael. “Secretary or Sad Clerk? The Problem with John Harmon.” Dickens Quarterly 1, no. 4 (December 1984): 130-36.

Suggests that Dickens had two contradictory intentions for the character of John Harmon: one as the resourceful, capable man, and the other as the sad, defeated child.

Hutter, Albert D. “Dismemberment and Articulation in Our Mutual Friend.” Dickens Studies Annual 11 (1983): 135-75.

Studies the Victorian fascination with mutilation and dismemberment and the way they are represented in Our Mutual Friend.

Jaffe, Audrey. “Omniscience in Our Mutual Friend: On Taking the Reader by Surprise.” Journal of Narrative Technique 17, no. 1 (Winter 1987): 91-101.

Takes issue with critics who claim that there is no prominent omniscient narrative presence in Our Mutual Friend.

Kennedy, G. W. “Naming and Language in Our Mutual Friend.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 28, no. 2 (Sept. 1973): 165-78.

Studies the way various characters in Our Mutual Friend passively accept the domination of the novel's collective consciousness, as opposed to the small number of characters who assert their individual wills in opposition to it.

Kucich, John. “Dickens' Fantastic Rhetoric: The Semantics of Reality and Unreality in Our Mutual Friend.” Dickens Studies Annual 14 (1985): 167-89.

Studies the relationship between realism and romance at the semantic level in Our Mutual Friend.

MacKay, Carol Hanbery. “The Encapsulated Romantic: John Harmon and the Boundaries of Victorian Soliloquy.” Dickens Studies Annual 18 (1989): 255-76.

Reviews John Harmon's lengthy soliloquy, often considered problematic by scholars, and suggests that its combination of Victorian and Romantic features is of far more importance than its length and form.

Miller, Michael G. “The Fellowship-Porters and the Veneerings': Setting, Structure and Justice in Our Mutual Friend.” The Dickensian 85 (1989): 64–74.

Examines two of Our Mutual Friend's settings, noting the contrast between the comfortable tavern and the cold, uninviting home of the Veneerings.

Newman, S. J. “Decline and Fall Off? Towards an Appreciation of Our Mutual Friend.” The Dickensian 85, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 99-104.

Claims that the central problem of Our Mutual Friend is how seriously its author intended readers to take it.

Palmer, William J. “The Movement of History in Our Mutual Friend.” PMLA [Publications of the Modern Language Association] 89, no. 3 (May 1974): 487-95.

Examines the way various characters deal with past history and the many ways they misread its meanings.

Robson, John M. “Crime in Our Mutual Friend.” In Rough Justice: Essays on Crime in Literature, edited by M. L. Friedland, pp. 114-40, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Studies the many and various instances of criminal activity and violent acts in Our Mutual Friend.

Shea, F. X. “Mr. Venus Observed: the Plot Change in Our Mutual Friend.” Papers on Language and Literature 4, no. 2 (Spring 1968): 170-181.

Concludes from a study of the manuscript that Dickens changed the plot of the novel while writing it, resulting in an attack on the upper middle class that was much weaker than originally intended.

Smith, Peter. “The Aestheticist Argument of Our Mutual Friend.” Cambridge Quarterly 18, no. 4 (1989): 362-82.

Argues that beauty is the theme of Our Mutual Friend, and that all other themes and motifs—from greed and social injustice to the river and the dustheaps—must be considered subordinate to the novel's primary concern.

Yeazell, Ruth Bernard. “Podsnappery, Sexuality, and the English Novel.” Critical Inquiry 9, no. 2 (December 1982): 339-57.

Explores the illusion of young female innocence which accounts for the elimination of information not only about sexuality, but also about social problems, in the Victorian novel in general, and in Our Mutual Friend in particular.

Additional coverage of Dickens's life and career is contained in the following sources published by The Gale Group: Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 23; Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography 1832-1890; DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: British; DISCovering Authors: Canadian; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most Studied Authors and Novelists; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 21, 55, 70, 159, 166; Junior DISCovering Authors; Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults; Novels for Students, Vol. 5; Something About the Author, Vol. 15; Short Story Criticism, Vol. 17; and World Literature Criticism, 1500-Present.