Hahahhahahaha - Edit 1
Before modification by Camilla at 02/11/2011 06:22:38 AM
Here is a quote I came across in The Athenaeum from the 9th of April 1864 one long day in the library:
On the title of Mr. Dickens' new story, ``Our Mutual Friend'', we have received many protests which would more usefully have been directed to the story-teller. ``In the interest of the Queen's English'', one gentleman writes, ``is it not to be regretted that Mr. Dickens should have chosen this phrase as the title of his new book? What is a mutual friend? If A has friendly feelings towards B, and B reciprocates them, their friendship is mutual; and they may without impropriety be called mutual friends. But if A and B are two persons, each of whom enjoys the friendship of a third person, C, there is no ``mutuality'' in the case. C is in this case their common friend; and the use of the word mutual to express the relation is which any of them stands to either of the others is manifestly incorrect. Two brothers cannot be said to have a mutual parent. Their father is their common parent''. Another gentleman reminds us that Macaulay has made a particular and emphatic protest against this expression. Mr. Dickens, it is admitted, has the power, and the right, to raise a mere colloquialism out of the dust, and to confer upon it the dignity of a literary idiom. But where there is a great power there is equal responsibility. At present we can only write in the dark, for Mr. Dickens's story is not published, and, for anything we know his use of the term may be perfectly sound. We have the right to assume it is so' (511).
On the title of Mr. Dickens' new story, ``Our Mutual Friend'', we have received many protests which would more usefully have been directed to the story-teller. ``In the interest of the Queen's English'', one gentleman writes, ``is it not to be regretted that Mr. Dickens should have chosen this phrase as the title of his new book? What is a mutual friend? If A has friendly feelings towards B, and B reciprocates them, their friendship is mutual; and they may without impropriety be called mutual friends. But if A and B are two persons, each of whom enjoys the friendship of a third person, C, there is no ``mutuality'' in the case. C is in this case their common friend; and the use of the word mutual to express the relation is which any of them stands to either of the others is manifestly incorrect. Two brothers cannot be said to have a mutual parent. Their father is their common parent''. Another gentleman reminds us that Macaulay has made a particular and emphatic protest against this expression. Mr. Dickens, it is admitted, has the power, and the right, to raise a mere colloquialism out of the dust, and to confer upon it the dignity of a literary idiom. But where there is a great power there is equal responsibility. At present we can only write in the dark, for Mr. Dickens's story is not published, and, for anything we know his use of the term may be perfectly sound. We have the right to assume it is so' (511).