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London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. First edition, First Issue with p. 213 mis-numbered 113 and signature b to the list of illustrations leaf and the required mis-spelling at p. 134. With 16 illustrations by H. K. Browne, including a frontispiece and vignette title page. 8vo, very handsomely bound in antique three-quarter tan calf, the covers with fine marbled paper over the boards, the spine elaborately decorated within panels gilt tooled at the borders and with central gilt ornamental pieces between raised bands, lettered in gilt on contrasting maroon and brown morocco lettering labels, l blue marbled endleaves, a.e.g. viii, list of plates, 254pp. A fine and very handsome copy indeed, the prelims with some browning from long ago. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. TALE OF TWO CITIES ranks amongst the most famous works in the history of literary fiction. It is one of only two works of historical fiction by Charles Dickens and stands out from most of Dickens's other novels as the one…

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.