Books

London, Chapman & Hall, 1859. . First edition, first issue; 8vo (220 x 150 mm); 16 engraved plates (including additional title and frontispiece) by Hablot K. Browne, very occasional light spotting to plates but in the main, unusually clean and bright; near-contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, matching endpapers and edges, worn and rubbed at extremities but sound; otherwise a very good copy indeed. A first issue with p. 213 mispaginated as 113 and signature 'b' on 'List of Plates' leaf and 'affetcionately on p. 134, line 12With one of the most famous opening sentences in history, A Tale of Two Cities ranks among the novelist's finest, anatomising the conflict between democratic and aristocratic principles during the French revolution.An 'intensely cold mist' covers the land 'like an evil spirit'. After 18 years as a political prisoner, Doctor Manette is released and reunited with his daughter, the beguiling Lucie, who captivates the affections of two suitors, an aristocratic…

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.