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 (June through December, 1859) — see below for "List of Seventeen Illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne" (Phiz); including the Frontispiece entitled Hundreds of People or Under the Plane Tree (Book II, Chapter 6), and the Title-page Vignette, In the Bastille (Book III, Chapter 10); neither of these was issued until the final, monthly double number (26 November 1859).

A Tale of Two Cities appeared between 30 April through 26 November 1859 in thirty-one weekly parts in All the Year Round and eight monthly instalments

  • 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 8 (for December, 1859; issued in weekly numbers 5 October).
  • 7B. After the Sentence, Book III, Chapter (for December 1859; issued in weekly numbers 5 November).
  • 7C. In the Bastille, vignette, Book III, 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 (Nov. 26, 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. See List of Plates (21 November 1859) from the volume edition.

    Related Materials

    Scanned images, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.] Click on an image to enlarge it.

    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. 61-124.

    Cunnington, C. Willett and Phyllis. Handbook of Eighteenth Century. London: Faber and Faber, 1972.

    Cunnington, Phyllis. Handbook of English Costume in the Nineteenth Century. Boston: Plays, 1970.

    Dickens, Charles. (1859). A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VIII.

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

    _______. A Tale of Two Cities, ed. Andrew Sanders. World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

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

    Vann, J. Don. "A Tale of Two Cities in All the Year Round, 30 April—26 November 1859." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 71-72.


    Created 12 August 2015

    Last updated 21 July 2026