Our Mutual Friend

The census is right that the parts precede the book and right on publisher, but 'twenty monthly parts' is imprecise: 20 numbers were issued in 19 monthly parts, the last a double number. The true first is the parts issue, May 1864 - November 1865 - not the 1865 volumes; the census's true-first year should read 1864-1865. Both are collected: (1) the 19/20 parts in original green pictorial wrappers, and (2) the first edition in book form, Chapman and Hall, 1865, in two volumes (title pages state 'In Two Volumes', 'Vol. I' / 'Vol. II'), a deviation from Dickens's former practice. This was the last novel Dickens completed. No American edition holds precedence over the London parts.