First Edition
Tale of Two Cities. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.
. A Tale of Two Cities. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.
Full Description:
DICKENS, Charles. BROWNE, Hablot Knight, [illustrator]. A Tale of Two Cities. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.
First edition, mixed issue. Page 134 line 12 showing the misspelling of “affetcionately” and page 238 with triple end quotes, but page 213 shows correct pagination and page 166 with "himself" fully printed. List of Plates without the signature “b”. Octavo (8 7/16 x 5 5/16 inches; 214 x 135 mm). viii, [2], 254 pp. Complete with sixteen plates by Browne ['Phiz'] including frontispiece and vignette title. Without the publisher's catalog bound at the end, but which Smith deems unnecessary.
Contemporary half tan calf, over marbled boards. Spine stamped in gilt. Spine with red and green morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. Some minor rubbing and bumping to board edges. Some occasional light toning, otherwise text is very clean. Overall a very good copy.
A Tale of Two Cities was first serialized in Dickens’s periodical All the Year Round, from April 30-November 26, 1859. Its appearance in monthly parts (July-December 1859) and book form mark Dickens’s return to his old publishers Chapman and Hall, after a long stay with Bradbury and Evans. The extremely large audience for the novel in All the Year Round, however, left less than the usual demand for the parts issue and, at first, for the book, both of which are now quite rare. This title also marks the author’s final collaboration with Phiz, Dickens’s most evocative and most sympathetic illustrator.
Hatton and Cleaver, 33lff. Smith I, 13.
HBS 69490.
$2,250.
Price: $2,250.00
Item #69490