Which Dickens novel features the character of Mr. Venus, a taxidermist?

The Dickens novel featuring Mr. Venus, a taxidermist, is Our Mutual Friend. Venus is one of the novel’s most unusual supporting characters: he preserves animals and articulates human bones, assembling skeletons for study and display.

Our Mutual Friend was Dickens’s final completed novel. It was published in monthly parts from 1864 to 1865 and is built around inheritance, money, social status, and the London dust heaps from which wealth is extracted.

Mr. Venus becomes connected with Silas Wegg after obtaining Wegg’s amputated leg. Wegg tries to involve him in a blackmail scheme concerning the Boffins, but Venus secretly helps expose Wegg’s plans. His professional knowledge gives him an important role in the plot’s investigations and revelations.

Venus is sometimes confused with a character from another Dickens novel because Dickens used many eccentric professionals and tradespeople. The taxidermist, however, belongs specifically to Our Mutual Friend, where he eventually marries Pleasant Riderhood.