Charles Dickens

Item 6C

A Tale of Two Cities

1859
First Edition
Presentation Copy

Initially published as magazine installments, A Tale of Two Cities first appeared as a book in 1859. This best-selling Dickens novel famously begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” What follows is a love story about family, friendship, and romance, set in both London and Paris mostly during the French Revolution. This first edition with the author’s autograph inscription was given by Dickens to George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans. Dickens had suspected that Eliot might be a woman when she sent him a copy of her first work of fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life, in 1858. The following year, she confirmed her identity when sending him a copy of Adam Bede.