Product Description

The fortunes of two men - Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English laywer - become entwined through their love for Lucie Manette. Drawn together to the streets of Paris, their fate is played out under the vengeful shadow of La Guillotine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #171411 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 520 pages

Customer Reviews

If you're going to read only one Dickens, read this one.
I fell in love with Dickens when I read Great Expectations. I have yet to see an author who can turn a phrase quite the way he does. My next one was Bleak House followed by Nicholas Nickelby and David Copperfield.

I hesitated to read Two Cities because of the subject matter. The French Revolution is an ugly chapter in history. As I walked past my hall bookcase one day(yes, I have a bookcase in the hall)Two Cities caught my eye. I bought it years ago when I was building my 'teeny book' collection. I think I have a hundred of the little books. Lots of good literature in a good looking format that fits into a small space but I digress. After I turned the last page, I had discovered my new favourite Dickens.

Two Cities is faster paced than his longer novels with a much tighter structure. For those who may have lost patience with a longer one, try Two Cities.

Like his other novels there are some 'good as gold' characters. I especially appreciated them in this tale because he did not mince words in his descriptions of the horrors of the revolution. I felt like I was coming up for air when he switched scenes back to the good Doctor's family.

Dickens always took the part of the poor and downtrodden but in this tale he did not excuse the brutalities of the Republic. Instead, he issues a warning to oppressors and would-be liberators. The capacity for cruelty and injustice is not limited by class.

The best part of the tale for me was Sydney Carton's journey. His love for Lucie Manette was not the common, vulgar kind: it was ennobling, leading him to act to protect her happiness. Dickens also weaves in the sense of the eternal and the novel's oft quoted climax is one of the best in literature.

If you're going to read just one, choose Tale of Two Cities. Dickens literary skills were at their sharpest when he penned this one.