8vo. London: Chapman & Hall, MDCCCLIX (Date: 1859). 8vo, [ix], [1]-254, 16 etched plates including frontis and title vignette. Full olive green fine-diaper cloth, entirely stamped in blind with a three line border which encloses a rectangular frame within which is is an ornament of leaves and stems in each corner and a chain-like design with each link enclosing a four-leafed flower. Housed in a green cloth slip-case. The head and tail of the backstrip are very slightly bumped with some sun toning; minor scattered foxing mostly near plates and some off-setting; a good clean copy in a beautifully preserved original cloth binding. § First edition in the rare secondary green cloth binding. Two of the eight internal flaws identified by Smith as necessary for the first issue have been corrected: “l” and “f” are printed on p.116 and 213 is numbered correctly. Of the latter point Eckel observes “The absence of this error does not invalidate a first edition but it fixes the priority of printing” and Smith concludes “this binding is probably of a later state than the red morocco [cloth] one”, i.e. second issue. “When Dickens began the publication of All the Year Round, the successor of Household Words, he realized the necessity of making a strong start. So he began writing A Tale of Two Cities, publishing the first of the serial in the opening number of his new periodical... As a novel of great popularity it probably ranks next to Pickwick and Copperfield” ...

London, Chapmann and Hall, London, Chapmann and Hall1859 ; in-8, plein veau blond, encadrement de filets et guirlandes dorées, dos lisse orné d’un décor doré, tranches dorées. (Reliure de l’époque signée H. Cotheran, London) VIII pp., 1 f. (list of plates), 254 pp.Frontispice, titre gravé illustré et 14 illustrations hors-texte de H. K. Browne, connu sous le nom de Phiz, le célèbre illustrateur de Dickens. ÉDITION ORIGINALE. Second état. La page de titre est bien datée 1859, mais la page 213 est correctement chiffrée 213 et non 113.Exemplaire en pleine reliure ornée de l’époque signée H. Cotheran and Co London. Qq. rousseurs. Un coin du second plat taché et un peu épidermé près de la charnière.
[France, Montigny sur Canne, FRA] [Publication Year: 1859]