Study notes: A Tale of Two Cities
London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. A doctor freed after eighteen years in the Bastille, his daughter, the French nobleman she marries, and a careless English lawyer are all pulled toward the guillotine. Its opening and closing lines are some of the most famous in English.
Themes
Sacrifice. Revolution and justice. Rebirth.
People to follow
Dr. Manette, Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Madame Defarge.
Talk about
- Why does Dickens compare two cities?
- Is Madame Defarge right or wrong?
- What does Carton's choice mean?
Public-domain text. First published in 1859; Charles Dickens died in 1870, so this text is in the public domain in the US, Canada, the EU and India. Summary and notes written by ViralScopeHub.