1859 Final "Tale of Two Cities" Installment, John Brown Excitement Dickens Dec 3

🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · December 3, 1859
Complete Issue · New York

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A historically exceptional closing issue of the 1859 run — the final installment of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, serialized in Harper's Weekly since April; text on the John Brown excitement published the day after his execution on December 2; the assassination of Ormond Chase in Mexico; and the wreck of the Royal Charger on the English coast. The final Dickens and the John Brown execution coverage appearing together in one issue make this one of the most historically charged closing issues of the year.

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📚 CHARLES DICKENS — FINAL INSTALLMENT
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✍️ FINAL INSTALLMENT — "A TALE OF TWO CITIES" BY CHARLES DICKENS
The final installment of A Tale of Two Cities — one of the most celebrated novels in the English language, whose serialization in Harper's Weekly had run from April through December 1859. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" — the novel that opened with the most famous first sentence in English literature now closes with Sydney Carton's equally celebrated final words: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." The resonance of Carton's sacrifice alongside the execution of John Brown — hanged the previous day, December 2, 1859 — is one of the most extraordinary coincidences in American publishing history. Brown had said before his death: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." Dickens's novel of revolutionary sacrifice and redemption, closing on the day after Brown's martyrdom, gives this issue a unique and unrepeatable historical charge. This is the primary published document of the final chapter of A Tale of Two Cities as first read by American audiences — in the same newspaper that had covered John Brown's raid, trial, and execution across eight consecutive issues. An essential piece of Victorian literary history and American Civil War origins history.

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⚔️ "THE JOHN BROWN EXCITEMENT"
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📰 TEXT — "THE JOHN BROWN EXCITEMENT"
Text on the John Brown excitement — published on December 3, 1859, the day after Brown's execution at Charles Town, Virginia on December 2. Across the North, church bells tolled, memorial services were held, and abolitionists gathered to mourn. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared Brown "will make the gallows glorious like the cross." Henry David Thoreau had written "A Plea for Captain John Brown" just weeks earlier. The "excitement" Harper's Weekly documented was the beginning of the transformation of John Brown from a violent raider into a national martyr — a transformation that would make "John Brown's Body" the marching song of the Union Army within eighteen months. A primary document of the immediate aftermath of one of the most consequential executions in American history.

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💀 ASSASSINATION OF ORMOND CHASE
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💀 FRONT PAGE — "ASSASSINATION OF ORMOND CHASE BY THE MEXICANS AT TEPIC" — SHOWING HIM HANGING FROM A TREE
A dramatic front-page illustration of the assassination of Ormond Chase — an American killed at Tepic in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, Mexico, shown hanging from a tree in one of the most stark and violent front-page images in this 1859 run. The incident reflects the ongoing instability of Mexico during the Reform War and the dangers facing Americans in the country. A significant piece of American-Mexican relations and Victorian frontier violence history.

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🖼️ INSIDE THE ISSUE
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🚢 FULL PAGE — "LOSS OF THE 'ROYAL CHARGER' ON THE COAST OF ENGLAND, OCTOBER 25, 1859"
A dramatic full-page illustration of the wreck of the Royal Charger on the English coast — a vivid piece of Victorian maritime disaster history.

⛪ ONE-THIRD PAGE — "SCENE IN A FASHIONABLE CHURCH AT LIMA"
A one-third page illustration of a fashionable church scene in Lima, Peru — a vivid piece of South American Catholic cultural history.

👤 QUARTER PAGE — "JOHN W. FORNEY, ESQ., OF PHILADELPHIA"
A quarter-page portrait of John Wien Forney — the Philadelphia journalist and politician who edited the Philadelphia Press and served as Secretary of the U.S. Senate, a significant figure in antebellum Democratic politics.

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📋 CONDITION
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I photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask any questions — I'm happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you buy.

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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· December 3, 1859
City ··············· New York
Format ············· Illustrated newspaper, complete in 16 pages

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📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION
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• Stored in an acid-free protective bag and flat-shipped in a padded envelope with heavy cardboard reinforcement
• Fully tracked for your peace of mind

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