A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations: Two Novels (Oprah's Book Club) - Softcover

Dickens, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142196584 ISBN 13: 9780142196588

Publisher: Penguin, 2010

Synopsis

Two of the most beloved novels in all of English literature--together in one extraordinary volume.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
After 18 years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of the two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of the guillotine.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor--these form a series of events that changes the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his "great expectations."

This deluxe paperback edition features
·    French flaps
·    rough-cut high-quality paper
·    complimentary front- and back-cover designs highlighting each novel and including foil and debossing

A Charles Dickens Timeline

1812	Born February 7 in Portsmouth, England
1824	His father John sent to Marshalsea Debtor's Prison for a debt of £40 and 10 shillings
	Began working 10-hour days in shoe-polish warehouse to help support family
1833	First story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk," appeared in the Monthly Magazine
1836	First book, Sketches by Boz, collected his early journalism and stories
	First novel, The Pickwick Papers, began its monthly serialization
	Married Catherine Hogarth
1837-39	Oliver Twist appeared in monthly installments
1838-39	Nicholas Nickleby serialized
1840-41	The Old Curiosity Shop
1841	Barnaby Rudge
1842	American Notes, based on his tour that year of the United States
1843	The Christmas Carol, the first of his "Christmas tales"
1843-44	Martin Chuzzlewit
1846-48	Dombey and Son
1849-50	David Copperfield
1852-53	Bleak House
1854	Hard Times
1855-57	Little Dorrit
1857	Met actress Ellen Ternan, his longtime companion
1858	Separated from his wife, Catherine
1859	A Tale of Two Cities
1860-61	Great Expectations
1864-65	Our Mutual Friend
1867-68	Second tour of America
1868-69	Farewell reading tour of the British Isles
1870	The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished)
	Died from a stroke on June 9

About this title

About the Author:

One of the grand masters of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation, but also the horror of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and "slave" factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years' formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney's clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after 23 years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of 58, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0142196584
• ISBN 13: 9780142196588
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 848