Dickens, Charles | "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Property from the Workman Collection

Dickens, Charles

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

8vo (223 x 141mm). 16 etched illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") including frontispiece and additional title, early textural state with p. 213 mispaginated as 113 and list of plates signed “b.”, 32 pp. publisher's catalogue at the rear; some foxing to plates, as usual, modern tissue guards laid in. Original red morocco cloth, covers decorated in blind with outer rectangular panels containing an “88” figure design, gilt title with gilt shield motif on spine, pale yellow endpapers; upper joint split but holding, some light fraying at edges, some staining. Housed in custom oxblood morocco clamshell case. 

First book edition of one of Dickens' most popular novels (particularly in North America), his elaborate adventure story set during the second half of the eighteenth century and inspired by Thomas Carlyle's study of the French Revolution.

REFERENCE:

Smith I:13; Eckel 86-90; Sadleir 701; Wolff 1811

PROVENANCE:

Mary Ann Taylor, Leicester 1860 (ownership inscription to front free endpaper)