Books

First edition in book form, attractively bound. Dickens's great historical romance, set during the French Revolution, remains one of his best known and most widely read works. "In its tightly organized and highly romantic melodrama and the near-absence of typical 'Dickensian' humour and humorous characters, A Tale of Two Cities certainly stands apart from all his other novels" (ODNB). The novel was also issued in monthly parts from April to November 1859 and serialized in Dickens's weekly journal All the Year Round in the same period, before publication in book form in November that year. Octavo (207 x 130 mm). Early 20th-century calf by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine lettered in gilt, gilt in compartments, triple gilt fillet to covers, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Engraved frontispiece, vignette title and 14 plates by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). P. 213 correctly numbered, list of plates without signature "b": second states, but not indicative of priority of issue (Kremers, p. 112). Spine a little darkened, very light rubbing at extremities, contents clean and fresh save for scattered very light toning and foxing. A very good copy. Eckel, pp. 86-90; Gimbel A142; Hatton & Cleaver p. 331; Kremers, pp. 108-12; Smith 13.

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.