Books

Original red cloth (first binding). Joints very slightly tender, light soiling. A very handsome copy in original, unrestored condition. Half morocco case. FIRST EDITION, FIRST BINDING, FIRST PRINTING (with page 213 mis-numbered 113 and sig. b present on the list of illustrations, points that were corrected in later copies of this edition). A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens's greatest and most-quoted novels. "The force of the novel springs from its exploration of darkness and death but its beauty derives from Dickens's real sense of transcendence, from his ability to see the sweep of destiny . . . this is what emerges most clearly from one of his shortest and most powerful novels" (Ackroyd). Dickens was emotionally vested in this great novel. He wrote, "It has had complete possession of me; I have so far verified what is done and suffered in these pages as that I have certainly done and suffered it all myself." The quality and strength of the prose is some of the…

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.