Charles Dickens · 1859
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, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...”
— The opening lines
Begin ReadingIn 1859, at the height of his fame, Charles Dickens published a novel unlike anything he had written before. It was short, tightly plotted, almost completely humorless, and set in the past — the only historical novel he ever wrote, apart from Barnaby Rudge. It told the story of the French Revolution through the intertwined fates of a handful of characters in London and Paris: a wrongfully imprisoned doctor, his devoted daughter, a self-hating lawyer, a refugee aristocrat, and a vengeful woman who knits the names of the doomed into her register. The novel was A Tale of Two Cities, and it would become the best-selling novel in the English language.
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
— Sydney Carton, the novel's closing words
The novel is a study in tension: love and violence, London and Paris, private life and public catastrophe. It asks whether individuals can be “recalled to life,” whether violence can ever bring justice, and whether a single act of sacrifice can redeem a world. It has sold over 200 million copies, shaped how the English-speaking world understands the French Revolution, and given us one of literature's greatest closing paragraphs. This site is your guide to the world of the novel and the history behind it.