Charles Dickens, 1859

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870). A Tale of Two Cities. London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.

The very handsome Blair copy of the first edition, first issue, in the first binding. A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens’s greatest and most-quoted novels “The force of the novel springs from its exploration of darkness and death but its beauty derives from Dickens’s real sense of transcendence, from his ability to see the sweep of destiny . . . this is what emerges most clearly from one of his shortest and most powerful novels” (Ackroyd). Dickens was emotionally vested in this great novel; he wrote, “It has had complete possession of me; I have so far verified what is done and suffered in these pages as that I have certainly done and suffered it all myself.” The quality and strength of the prose is some of the finest he was ever to produce, for example, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.” Its serialization in Dickens’s weekly All the Year Round reduced the demand for the book and parts issues, and thus fine copies are scarce. The present copy has page 213 mis-numbered, sig. b present on the list of illustrations, and "affectionately" misspelled on page 134, points that were corrected in later copies of the edition.

Octavo (222 x 135mm). Etched frontispiece, vignette-title and 14 plates by Hablot K. Browne ["Phiz"]. Original red cloth. A little spotting to plates; front hinge starting, spine a trifle faded. Frontispiece and 14 plates. Custom box. Provenance: Mrs. J. Insley Blair (Sotheby’s, New York, 3 December 2004, lot 140) – A.W. Bulleu.