A Tale of Two Cities

ABOUT THE BOOK : A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. Its story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. The novel tells the story ofthe French Doctor Manette; his 18yearlong imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris; his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met; Lucie’s marriage and the collision between her beloved husband and the people who caused her father’s imprisonment; and Monsieur and Madame Defarge, sellers of wine in a poor suburb of Paris; With this book, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and a societal level. Although the novel describes the atrocities committed both by the aristocracy and by the outraged peasants, it ultimately expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society.