A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..."

Dr Manette is released from the Bastille after eighteen years' confinement, which has driven him to the edge of madness. He is "recalled to life" by the joyous reconciliation with his daughter Lucie, and returns with her to England. But Manette's maniacal obsession with shoemaking, developed during his long incarceration, is not quite over, for there are dark secrets surrounding his "crime" that have yet to emerge; secrets involving the reprehensible French aristocrat Marquis St Evrémonde, who represents the worst of the ancian régime. Lucie is courted by Evrémonde's nephew, Charles Darnay, who has renounced his heritage but remains tainted - and threatened - by the familial connection. His rival for Lucie's affections, wastrel lawyer Sydney Carton, becomes an unlikely hero when tragedy seems certain to strike. The action switches between London and Revolutionary Paris in Dickens's compelling drama of love, vengeance and sacrifice played out against a momentous period in European history.

Charles Dickens, one of the best known and most read of English writers of Victorian period. He was born into a large comfortable middle class family of Navy clerk in Portsmouth. His father John Dickens later found work in Chatham and Charles, the second of seven children went to the local school there. After moving to Camden Town in London, John Dickens was arrested and sent to debtor's prison and young Charles aged twelve was forced to work at a factory for six shillings a week. He returned to school later after his father's release from prison and became interested in the subject of social reform. He started making contributions to radical newspapers of the time. In 1833 Charles's first short stories were published in the Monthly Magazine under his pen name Boz, followed by more contributions to Morning Chronicle and the London Evening Chronicle. These stories had become very popular and were later published as a book entitled Sketches by Boz. After publication of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby Dickens had become the most popular writer in Britain and continued to write until his death in 1870.