A tale of two cities

Chronology

List of characters

Book the first: Recalled to life

Book the second: The golden thread

Book the third: The track of a storm

APPENDIX: Introduction to the original Everyman edition by G.K. Chesterton.

The world of Charles Dickens and A tale of two cities

Introduction by Gillen D'Arcy Wood

A tale of two cities

Endnotes

Inspired by A tale of two cities

Comments & questions

For further reading.

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine. This edition uses the text as it appeared in its first serial publication in 1859 to convey the full scope of Dickens's vision, and includes the original illustrations by H. K. Browne ('Phiz'). Richard Maxwell's introduction discusses the intricate interweaving of epic drama with personal tragedy.

Introduction

Dickens chronology

Timeline

Further reading

Note on the text

Tale of two cities.