Our Mutual Friend, in Two Volumes, with the Original Illustrations (The Gadshill Edition) (The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes, Vols. XXIII & XXIV)

xvi, 524, [2]; viii, [2], 503 pp. 8vo. Complete in two hardcover volumes. Original red cloth, gilt titles and author's device, gilt top page ridge. Original illustrations protected by tissue guards. Introduction and notes by Andrew Lang, a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic best known for his collections of folk and fairy tales. A body is found in the Thames and identified as that of John Harmon, a young man recently returned to London to receive his inheritance. Were he alive, his father's will would require him to marry Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom he had never met. Instead, the money passes to the working-class Boffins, and the effects spread into various corners of London society.