It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
An edition of A Tale of Two Cities
(1800)
A Tale of Two Cities
Penguin Popular Classics edition (22)
by Charles Dickens
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
Those are the famous lines of Dickens's stirring tale of two cities, London and Paris, at the time of the French Revolution. Suspense gathers from the opening scene, the dramatic coach journey to Dover and the rescue of Dr. Manette from incarceration in the Bastille. At the centre of the novel are the figures of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, both men in love with the doctor's beautiful daughter Lucie, linked together by fate and by the engulfing terrors of revolution.
A Tale Of Two Cities was written at a time of crisis in Dickens's life. It is a wonderful love story and, aside from The Pickwick Papers, the most popular of all Dickens's novels.
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A Tale of Two Cities
1994, Penguin Books
Paperback
in English
- Penguin Popular Classics edition (22)
0140620788 9780140620788
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A Tale of Two Cities
1936, New American Library
mass market paperback
in English
- Eleventh printing
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A Tale of Two Cities
1912, Waverley Book Company
hardcover
in English
- Special Edition for subscribers only
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A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction, critic Don D'Ammassa argues that it is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed.
As Dickens's best-known work of historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities is said to be one of the best-selling novels of all time. In 2003, the novel was ranked 63rd on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The novel has been adapted for film, television, radio, and the stage, and has continued to influence popular culture.
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