Summary

A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. Its story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. The novel tells the story of: the French Doctor Manette; his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris; his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met; Lucie's marriage and the collision between her beloved husband and the people who caused her father's imprisonment; and Monsieur and Madame Defarge, sellers of wine in a poor suburb of Paris. With this book, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and a societal level. Although the novel describes the atrocities committed both by the aristocracy and by the outraged peasants, it ultimately expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society.