A Tale of Two Cities

[6]; 19-211; 11; [1]pp. Octavo [23.5 cm] Brown boards with ornamental blindstamping. Rebacked with portions of the original spine laid over. Boards touched up along the edges and corners. Yellow endpapers. Final advertisement trimmed short at the head. Double column text. Small tidemarks to the preliminary leaves and tissue guard. All illustrations present. With thirty-three illustrations from original designs by John McLenan. The obscure American illustrator and caricaturist John McLenan (1827-1865), originally a meat-packer in Cincinnati, was active from 1852-1865, contributing a number of designs to "Harper's Weekly". He is most remembered for his illustrations of "A Tale of Two Cities." An early printing of one of Dickens's most treasured works. A story set in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution, with vivid scenes of large-scale mob violence. Dickens's novel not only condemns aristocratic tyranny, but it criticizes revolutionary excess at the same time.…