Books

London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. BROWNE, Hablot Knight. . A Tale of Two Cities. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. Full Description: DICKENS, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne London: Chapman and Hall, [June-December] 1859. First edition, first issue, in the original eight numbers, bound in seven monthly parts. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches; 220 x 140 mm). [i-vii]viii[ix-x], [1]2-254. (No half-title called for.) Sixteen inserted plates including the frontispiece and the vignette title. Set collates complete, with the exception of Part V which is lacking all ads, and part VI only has one of the two leaves of the back advertisement. With the often-seen substitution of the Morison "Monument" ad for the Morison "View" ad in Part III, as in all other copies we've been able to trace. Also present is the scarce advertisement in the final part for Thackeray’s The Cornhill Magazine, rarely present. Text is first issue…

A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.