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. 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.

A Tale of Two Cities

New 6×9 inch paperback edition. “A Tale of Two Cities” is a novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, and depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. The cover is a 1789 engraving titled “The Third Estate carrying the Clergy and the Nobility on its back.”