A Tale of Two Cities

Front Cover
Random House Publishing Group, Jun 3, 2003 - Fiction - 416 pages
A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's great historical novel, 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, and social anarchy, resurrection and the renunciation that fosters renewal.

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Contents

The Period
3
The Mail
6
The Night Shadows
11
The Preparation
16
The Wineshop
28
The Shoemaker
39
BOOK THE SECOND THE GOLDEN THREAD
51
Five Years Later
53
Nine Days
193
An Opinion
200
A Plea
207
Echoing Footsteps
211
The Sea Still Rises
223
Fire Rises
228
Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
236
BOOK THE THIRD THE TRACK OF A STORM
249

A Sight
59
A Disappointment
66
Congratulatory
79
The Jackal
86
Hundreds of People
92
Monseigneur in Town
104
Monseigneur in the Country
113
The Gorgons Head
119
Two Promises
130
A Companion Picture
139
The Fellow of Delicacy
143
The Fellow of No Delicacy
150
The Honest Tradesman
155
Knitting
165
Still Knitting
177
One Night
188
In Secret
251
The Grindstone
262
The Shadow
269
Calm in Storm
274
The Woodsawyer
279
Triumph
286
A Knock at the Door
293
A Hand at Cards
298
The Game Made
311
The Substance of the Shadow
323
Dusk
338
Darkness
342
Fiftytwo
351
The Knitting Done
363
The Footsteps Die Out for Ever
376
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Portsmouth, England, and spent most of his life in London. When he was twelve, his father was sent to debtor’s prison and he was forced to work in a boot polish factory, an experience that marked him for life. He became a passionate advocate of social reform and the most popular writer of the Victorian era.

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