A Tale of Two Cities: Dickens's Revolutionary NovelThe novel is set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes -- imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal. |
Contents
Critical Reception | 3 |
The Genesis of A Tale of Two Cities | 4 |
Revolutionary France | 5 |
Copyright | |
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action ancien régime Andrew Sanders aristocrats Barnaby Rudge Barsad Bastille Bastille prisoner buried alive Carlyle Carlyle's Chapters characters Charles Darnay Charles Dickens château child Christian Christmas book Cities coach Collins condemnation contrast critics Cruncher Darnay Darnay's trial Dead Heart death Defarge's Dick Dickens's Dickensian Doctor Manette edition Ellen Ternan England English Evrémondes father fear footsteps Foulon France French Revolution Frozen Deep Gaspard grindstone guillotine Hamlet hero heroic heroism Historical Novel Household Words human imprisonment inhuman Jerry John Forster letter Little Dorrit little seamstress lives London Lorry Lucie Madame Defarge Manette's Marquis metaphor Miss Pross Monseigneur murder Old Bailey oppression Paris peasant play plot punishment readers reading rebirth resurrection revealed revolutionaries Richard Wardour road role sacrifice Saint Antoine scene secret seen shadow Soho storm story Stryver suffering Sydney Carton Tale Tellson's Bank Terror tion turned Victorian weekly wife Wilkie Wilkie Collins wine woman women writing