NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey has decided that it is the best of times for Charles Dickens.

The TV talk show host has selected a pair of Dickens classics, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations as her latest book club pick. The two novels are being issued in a single bound paperback edition, around 800 pages, with a list price of $20, which should sell briskly thanks to her endorsement.

Winfrey is to announce her choice Monday, when her long-awaited reconciliation with author Jonathan Franzen will air. Winfrey picked Franzen’s Freedom nine years after his ambivalence over her book club selection of his novel The Corrections led her to withdraw her invitation to appear on her show.

On Sunday, The Associated Press purchased a copy of the new Dickens volume, which has the book club logo on the cover. Winfrey has chosen older works before, including Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Her website recommends Dickens’ David Copperfield, noting it was a favourite of Tolstoy’s.