"He took her hair into his hand again, and looked closely at it." by John McLenan — illustration for Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" in "Harper's Weekly," Vol. III, No. 125 (28 May 1859)

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He took her hair into his hand again, and looked closely at it.

8.3 cm high by 8.3 cm wide (3 ¼ by 3 ¼ inches)

John McLenan

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book I, Chapter 6, "The Shoemaker."

Harper's Weekly, Vol. III, No. 125 (28 May 1859): 348. This text previously appeared in the UK in All the Year Round on 21 May 1859. See below for passage illustrated.

Pasage Illustrated: Lucie Manette reunited with her father

He took her hair into his hand again, and looked closely at it. "It is the same. How can it be! When was it! How was it!"

As the concentrated expression returned to his forehead, he seemed to become conscious that it was in hers, too. He turned her full to the light, and looked at her.

"She had laid her head upon my shoulder, that night when I was summoned out — she had a fear of my going, though I had none — and when I was brought to the North Tower they found these upon my sleeve. 'You will leave me them? They can never help me to escape in the body, though they may in the spirit.' Those were the words I said. I remember them very well."

He formed this speech with his lips many times before he could utter it. But when he did find spoken words for it, they came to him coherently, though slowly.

"How was this? — Was it you?" . . .

"No, no, no; you are too young, too blooming. It can't be. See what the prisoner is. These are not the hands she knew, this is not the face she knew, this is not a voice she ever heard. No, no. She was — and He was — before the slow years of the North Tower — ages ago. What is your name, my gentle angel?" ["Book the First — Recalled to Life," Chapter VI, "The Shoemaker," 349]

Other Illustrated Editions (1859-1910)

Related Material

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. These illustrations appear here by courtesy of the E. J. Pratt Fine Arts Library, University of Toronto, and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia.

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Illustrated: A Critical Reassessment of Hablot Knight Browne's Accompanying Plates." Dickens Studies. 33 (2003): 109-158.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, 7 May through 3 December 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: A story of the French Revolution. Project Gutenberg e-text by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. Release Date: September 25, 2004 [EBook #98].

Created 5 August 2007

Last modified 14 November 2025