Headnote vignette by John McLenan for Book II, Chapter 10, "Two Promises" in Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" in "Harper's Weekly" (16 July 1859)

Headnote Vignette

John McLenan

16 July 1859

7 cm high by 4.3 cm wide (3 inches by 1 &frac; 34 inches)

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second, "The Golden Thread," Chapter X, "Two Promises."

Harper's Weekly, Vol. III, No. 133 (16 July 1859): 453; this is the first illustration for the eleventh instalment, which had appeared in the UK in All the Year Round on 9 July 1859.

[For passage illustrated, see below.]

Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham; text by PVA and George P. Landow.

[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 the Victorian Web in a print one. .]

Passage Illustrated

Lucie Manette returns home to find that her father has regressed to the shoemaking of his Bastille days — a reaction to the stress occasioned by Charles Darnay's request to court her.

"My father!" she called to him. "Father dear!"

Nothing was said in answer, but she heard a low hammering sound in his bedroom. Passing lightly across the intermediate room, she looked in at his door and came running back frightened, crying to herself, with her blood all chilled, "What shall I do! What shall I do!"

Her uncertainty lasted but a moment; she hurried back, and tapped at his door, and softly called to him. The noise ceased at the sound of her voice, and he presently came out to her, and they walked up and down together for a long time.

She came down from her bed, to look at him in his sleep that night. He slept heavily, and his tray of shoemaking tools, and his old unfinished work, were all as usual. ["Book the Second — The Golden Thread," Chapter X, "Two Promises."]

Other Illustrated Editions (1859-1910)

Related Material

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.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, 7 May through 3 December 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: A story of the French Revolution. Project Gutenberg e-text by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. Release Date: September 25, 2004 [EBook #98].

Created 26 November 2007

Last modified 16 November 2025