Books

First edition, bound from the original parts, of Dickens's great historical romance, in an attractive contemporary binding and with the two desired first state points. "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 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 (214 x 133 mm). Contemporary green half calf, spine gilt in compartments with recent label to style, marbled sides, endpapers, and edges. Etched frontispiece and vignette title page, 14 etched plates, by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). With the first state of pp. 213 misnumbered 113, and the signature "b" on the list of plates. Ownership signature dated 1861 of Mary Apletree of Rhiwlas, Montgomeryshire, to initial binder's blank. Joints and extremities neatly restored, short closed tear at head of plate facing p. 168, repair to closed tear at foot of pp. 2-3, else contents clean and fresh. An excellent 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.