david gantzel
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
The phrase Our Mutual Friend had been used by Dickens as early as The Old Curiosity Shop. It was a phrase apparantly used by him quite frequently and he told John Forster years before that he intended to write a book of that title<br><br> Such an odd phrase was not in popular use. Readers needed to know what he had in mind and he elaborated in Chapter Nine when reference to Our Mutual Friend occurs twice. In the instance he chose it refers to John Harmon but it could have been any character i think