A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 1 MP3 CD

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel; it is moreover a moral novel strongly concerned with themes of guilt, shame and patriotism. Dickens' primary source for this historical novel is Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. The narrative is extraordinarily dependent upon correspondence as a medium for ensuring the flow of events, and while not an epistolary novel in the way that Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, nevertheless, it is immediately apparent that the flow of letters forms a driving center to much of the narrative development in this novel. The novel covers a period in history between 1775 and 1793, from the American Revolution until the middle period of the French Revolution.

The plot centers on the years leading up to French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look very alike but are entirely different in character. Darnay is a romantic descended from French aristocrats, while Carton is a cynical English barrister. The two are in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette: one of them will give up his life for her, and the other will marry her.

Other major characters in the book include Dr. Alexandre Manette (Lucie's father) who was unjustly imprisoned for many years prior to the commencement of the novel under a lettre de cachet and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with a grudge against Darnay's family.

The twists and turns in the novel are sinuous. Originally written as a serial novel for publication in newspapers, the chapters open and close with great drama and mystery. Dickens' take on the French Revolution is balanced - he describes the horrors and atrocities committed on both sides.

The two cities named in the title are London and Paris. Throughout the novel, pairs of people, places, etc. are compared and contrasted. The opening sentence, beginning with the line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is one of the most famous in all literature. The final line, the thoughts of Sydney Carton, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known," is almost as famous.