Summary of A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in Paris and London before and during the French Revolution. It begins in 1775, when the French doctor Alexandre Manette is released after eighteen years’ imprisonment in the Bastille and is reunited with his daughter Lucie. Five years later, Charles Darnay, a Frenchman living in England, is tried for treason in London but acquitted. In Paris, the carriage of the Marquis de St Evrémonde runs over and kills a child, whose father later kills the Marquis in his sleep. Darnay, the Marquis’s nephew and heir, settles in London and marries Lucie. When the French Revolution begins in 1789, the Bastille is stormed and the Evrémonde château is burnt down. Three years later, as the Revolution becomes increasingly violent, Darnay travels to Paris to help the former steward of his family’s estate, but is imprisoned and faces the guillotine. Dr Manette and Lucie follow him to Paris to try to secure his release. They are opposed by vengeful revolutionaries led by Madame Defarge, who are determined to settle old scores and take revenge on the aristocracy. Sydney Carton, an English lawyer and family friend who has always loved Lucie, ultimately becomes the hero of the story.
Reasons to read A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens was one of the greatest British novelists of the nineteenth century, and A Tale of Two Cities is one of his best-known books. The novel’s most dramatic events take place in revolutionary Paris, although London is also an important setting. It is a classic novel about social injustice and the excesses of both the French Ancien Régime, whose aristocracy exploits and oppresses the poor, and the French Revolution, which descends into terror, vengeance and indiscriminate violence. Other notable works by Dickens include Great Expectations, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield.
Setting: Paris (France) and London (England)
A Tale of Two Cities is set in Paris (especially the Faubourg Saint-Antoine) and London.
Original title: A Tale of Two Cities
Year of publication: 1859
Nr of pages: 472
