Illustrations by Phiz for "A Tale of Two Cities" (June-December 1859)

A Tale of Two Cities appeared between 30 April through 26 November 1859 in thirty-one weekly parts in All the Year Round, as well as in eight monthly instalments — List of Sixteen Illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"); including the wood-engravings Frontispiece: Hundreds of People or Under the Plane Tree (Book II, Chapter 6), and Title-page Vignette: In the Bastille (Book III, Chapter 10); neither issued until the final, double number in the monthly parts (26 November 1859).

1A. The Mail, Book I, Chapter 2 (for June, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 30 April).
1B. The Shoemaker, Book I, Chapter 6 (for June, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 2 May).
2A. The Likeness, Book II, Chapter 3 (for July, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 4 June).
2B. Congratulations, Book II, Chapter 4 (for July, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 4 June).
3A. The Stoppage at the Fountain, Book II, Chapter 7 (for August, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 25 June).
3B. Mr. Stryver at Tellson's Bank, Book II, Chapter 2 (for August, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 6 July).
4A. The Spy's Funeral, Book II, Chapter 4 (for September, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 23 July).
4B. The Wine-shop, Book II, Chapter 6 (for September, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 6 August).
5A. The Accomplices, Book II, Chapter (for October, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 20 August).
5B. The Sea Rises, Book II, Chapter 22 (for October, 1859; issued issued in weekly numbers 3 September).
6A. Before the Prison Tribunal, Book III, Chapter (for November, 1859, published 31 Oct.; issued in weekly numbers 17 September).
6B. The Knock at the Door, Book III, Chapter 7 (for November, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 8 October).
7A. The Double Recognition, Book III, Chapter 2cities/8 (for December, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 5 October).
7B. After the Sentence, Book III, Chapter 11 (for December 1859; issued in weekly numbers 5 November).
7C. In the Bastille, vignette, Book II2cities/I, Chapter 10 (for December, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 2 October); issued in the December instalment, a double number (parts 7 and 8 together), and also as the title-page vignette for first volume edition (26 Nov. 1859).
7D. Frontispiece: Hundreds of People or Under the Plane Tree (Book II, Chapter 6).
8. Cover (No. II), July 1859.

Note: Pictures 7B and C in the sequence depict incidents with which readers following A Tale of Two Cities in All the Year Round but also purchasing the monthly parts would have been familiar.

Related Materials

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.

Browne, Edgar. Phiz and Dickens As They Appeared to Edgar Browne. London: James Nisbet, 1913.

Cayzer, Elizabeth. "Dickens and His Late Illustrators. A Change in Style: Phiz and A Tale of Two Cities." Dickensian 86, 3 (Autumn, 1990): 130-141.

Cohen, Jane R. "Part Two. Dickens and His Principal Illustrator. Ch. 4. Hablot Browne." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: University of Ohio Press, 1980. Pp. 61-124.

Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens. Vol. 9 (1859-61), ed. Madeline House, Graham Storey, and Kathleen Tillotson. Oxford: Clarendon, 1999.

________. (1859). A Tale of Two Cities, ed. Andrew Sanders. World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

________. A Tale of Two Cities (1859), ed. George Woodcock. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.

Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Created 12 August 2015 2018

Last modified 30 April 2025

Illustrations by Phiz for A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Philip V. Allingham, Contributing Editor, Victorian Web, Professor Emeritus, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Related Materials

Bibliography