SOURCE: “The Critics and Our Mutual Friend,” in Essays in Criticism, Vol. 13, No. 3, July, 1963, pp. 231-40.

In the following essay, Hobsbaum examines common misreadings of Our Mutual Friend and suggests that they are caused by an overemphasis on character, whereas a study of the novel's central images would yield a greater understanding and appreciation of the work.

Even the greatest novel can lend itself to misreading if there is some uncertainty in its execution. The misreading may, however, be considerably in excess of the uncertainty.

For example, the young Henry James came out decisively against Our Mutual Friend when it first appeared. He regarded it as an unsuccessful attempt on Dickens's part to carry on his earlier, comic, vein. The view of Dickens as an instinctive eccentric was one characteristically found among Victorian highbrows, as George H. Ford has demonstrated in his valuable study of Dickens's early readers...