A Tale of Two Cities / The Three Musketeers - J.J. Little & Ives 1940s “Library Edition”

Charles Dickens / Alexandre Dumas. A Tale of Two Cities / The Three Musketeers. Adapted by Mabel Dodge Holmes, Jerome Carlin & Henry I. Christ. New York: J. J. Little & Ives Co., Inc., ca. late 1940s. Each text copyright by Globe Book Company (1941 and 1947). Octavo, half-green textured cloth over patterned paper boards with gilt fleur-de-lis design; gilt-stamped spine titled “Library Edition.” A classic two-in-one school-library binding issued by J. J. Little & Ives, combining two abridged high-school reading adaptations originally produced by Globe Book Company. Holmes’s A Tale of Two Cities simplifies Dickens’s revolutionary drama for classroom study, while Carlin & Christ’s The Three Musketeers distills Dumas’s swashbuckling adventure for mid-century readers. Attractive design typical of Little & Ives post-war “Library Edition” series, with repeating fleur-de-lis pattern on boards and matching endpapers. Condition: Near Fine. Bright patterned covers, light edgewear at spine ends, gilt titling clear, interior clean and unmarked, binding tight. A charming vintage school-library production and an appealing decorative shelf copy. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was England’s foremost Victorian novelist, author of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, whose serialized fiction combined moral insight with dramatic realism. Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), the French master of adventure fiction, created The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, novels celebrated for their enduring characters, wit, and romantic bravado. J. J. Little & Ives, long a respected New York printer and bindery, partnered with Globe Book Company in the 1940s–50s to reissue abridged school classics in sturdy, decorative bindings. These “Library Edition” issues reused Globe’s copyrighted educational adaptations but were rebound in elegant patterned paper and gilt-stamped spines, often featuring fleur-de-lis or marbled motifs with matching endpapers. Produced for schools, small libraries, and home reference collections, they embody the post-war trend of combining scholastic utility with bookshelf appeal. …