Volume 10 in the British Academy, or Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens edited by Graham Storey. The volume contains 918 letters dated between 1862 and 1864, during which time, Dickens was writing Our Mutual Friend, and paying regular visits to France.

This volume presents 918 letters, 435 previously unpublished. Our Mutual Friend, Dickens's main work in this period, comes out monthly from 30 April 1864 to 31 October 1865. The three highly successful All the Year Round Christmas numbers, "Somebody's Luggage", "Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings" and "Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy", take up much of his energies. Public readings continue, though less frequently; and Gad's Hill, where he entertains many of his friends, plays an increasingly major part in his life. But there is no other period in which he visits France so often, generally alone. The deliberately mystifying language he uses about these visits suggests he was seeing Ellen Ternan there, but there is no evidence to prove it.

we are faced with a figure who challenges us in a different way from the probing, sparkling, illuminating actor and observer of the 1840s and 1850s. This appears more clearly because of the Pilgrim's editing, its continued reliability and restraint and balanced judgement, and its attention to the general scene. As conceived and carried through, this is a superlative work on a grand scale. The editing is challenging in its restraint. It gives the evidence, and leaves conclusions to be drawn by readers ... there is a great deal in the ongoing Letters which is illuminating, that may prevent oversights about Dickens and his writing, and that is even essential to a full understanding.