A Tale of Two Cities Summary | Chapterly
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: A Complete Summary "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." Overview A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is Charles Dickens's historical novel set before and during the French Revolution. It is the best-selling novel of all time, with over 200 million copies sold. The story weaves between London and Paris, following the lives of Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who renounces his family's cruelty, and Sydney Carton, a dissolute English lawyer who looks remarkably like him. The novel explores how oppression breeds revolution, how revolution breeds new oppression, and how individual acts of love and sacrifice can redeem even the darkest times. Its famous opening and closing lines frame a story about the capacity for both destruction and grace that lives within every human heart. Plot Summary Dr. Alexandre Manette has been imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years by the Marquis St. Evrémonde. Released, he is reunited with his daughter Lucie in London. Charles Darnay, secretly a nephew of the Marquis, renounces his family and moves to England, where he falls in love with...