Dickens, Charles | A Tale of Two Cities, in original monthly parts

Property from the Library of John M. Schiff

Dickens, Charles

A Tale of Two Cities. London: Chapman and Hall, June - December 1859

8 parts in 7, 8vo (222 x 140 mm). Etched frontispiece, additional title and 14 plates by and after H.K. Browne, page 213 misnumbered as "113," 2 leaves of preliminaries unopened, conforming to the first issue points except in four instances, Part 3's back advertisement for "Morrison's Pills" is without the view of the premises and is instead identical to its appearance in Part 1, Part 5 is with the yellow slip inserted prior to the front advertisements, the back outside wrapper of Part 6 reads "A Tale of the Two Cities" at the head rather than "Lord Brougham and the Working Classes," the back wrapper of Parts 7-8, both inside and out, matches the first issue points called for Part 6; some tiny marginal tears restored throughout, stray spots, marks in pencil to the plate list, vignette title with slight smudging. Original blue-green pictorial wrappers by Browne; some marginal browning to the wrappers, with Parts 7-8 browned more so, small chips and nicks at extremities, slight loss to the upper corners of the final Part. Housed in a slipcase with folding chemise.

The scarce first edition, in original monthly parts

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ..."

A Tale of Two Cities has remained one of Dickens' most popular novels (particularly in North America). The elaborate adventure story, set during the second half of the eighteenth century, was directly inspired by his friend Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution (1837). It is the last of Dickens' novels to have been illustrated by "Phiz," and also marked the return of Chapman and Hall as Dickens's publishers. A Tale of Two Cities appeared simultaneously in the first thirty-two numbers of All the Year Round, which was, of course, edited by Dickens.

"Exceeded in scarcity only by Pickwick and Sketches by Boz" (Eckel).

REFERENCE:

Eckel 86-90: Gimbel A142; Hatton and Cleaver 331-342

PROVENANCE:

Mortimer L. Schiff