The Surrender of the Bastille [14 July 1789]
Arthur A. Dixon
1905
Watercolour as lithograph
4 ⅝ inches high by 3 ⅛ inches wide (12.2 cm by 8 cm)
Second illustration for Collins edition, facing title-page; see p. 260 for text.
Book II, “The Golden Thread,” Ch. 21, “Echoing Footsteps,” text p. 260; Penguin edition p. 246. Oxford World's Classics edition p. 264. Defarge at the head of the St. Antoine mob witnesses the surrender of the royal prison-fortress of the Bastille.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]
Passage Realised
A white flag from within the fortress, and a parley — this dimly perceptible through the raging storm, nothing audible in it — suddenly the sea rose immeasurably wider and higher, and swept Defarge of the wine-shop over the lowered drawbridge, past the massive stone outer walls, in among the eight great towers surrendered! [Book II, “The Golden Thread,” Ch. 21, “Echoing Footsteps,” p. 260]
Commentary: The Chief Historical Moment Anticipated — The Fall of the Ancienne Regime
Dixon gives the Fall of the Bastille and Defarge's participation in this great historical event considerable prominence by making it the frontispiece, facing the title-page. Thus, he situates one of the book's principal (fictional) characters with one of the most important events in European history to establish that this is an historical novel: a fictional cast and plot set against a non-fiction backdrop. In this anticipated chapter, the Darnays have established themselves in a quiet corner of the undistinguished London suburb of Soho. By July, 1789, their son has turned six. Lorry brings news that French depositors are rushing to transfer their funds to his English bank. Meanwhile, in Paris, the denizens of the suburb of St. Antoine, with publican Ernest Defarge at their head, storm the symbol of royalist oppression, The Bastille. But the historical event becomes fiction when Defarge discovers Dr. Manette's journal hidden behind a stone marked “A. M.” in his old cell, One Hundred and Five North Tower.
Other Illustrated Editions (1859-1910)
- Hablot K. Brown or 'Phiz' (16 monthly steel-engravings)
- John McLenan (64 wood-engravings, 1859)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior (8 wood-engravings, 1867)
- Fred Barnard (25 wood-engravings, 1874)
- Harry Furniss (32 lithographs, 1910)
Related Material
- A Tale of Two Cities 1859 — the last Dickens's novel "Phiz" Illustrated
- A Tale of Two Cities (1859): A Model of the Integration of History and Literature
- Carlyle's Influence upon A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
- Costume Notes on A Tale of Two Cities
- List of Phiz's Plates (21 November 1859) from the first volume edition.
- Compare to the twenty-fourth headnote vignette by John McLenan in Harper's Weekly Magazine 15 Oct. 1859 (New York)
- 25 Illustrations for Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities by Fred Barnard (from the Household Edition, 1874)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Ilustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Diamond Edition. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Junior. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition, 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. VIII.
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by A. A. Dixon with an engraved title by Harry Furniss. London: Collins, 1905. (From the personal collection of George Gorniak, Editor of The Dickens Magazine.)
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities, American Notes, and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. XIII.
Victorian
Web
Illus-
tration
A. A.
Dixon
A Tale of
Two Cities
Next
Created 2 November 2013
Last updated 26 August 2026