A Tale of Two Cities / Charles Dickens,

Introduction;
Note on the text;
A chronology of Charles Dickens;
A tale of two cities;
Appendix A: The serialization of A Tale of Two Cities in 1859;
Appendix B: A chronology for A Tale of Two Cities: History and functional history;
Fictional history;
Explanatory notes;
Further reading.

Set in London and Paris at the time of the french revolution, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) sees the causes and effects of that great social upheaval from an essentially private point of view. Dicken's characters are fictional, their responses individual, their political activity minimal, but all are caught up in a web woven by their own activities and responsibilities, and all are drawn to the paris of the terror.
A Tale of Two Cities is Dicken's second historical novel, which he considered 'the best story i have written' ; It has his tightest and most shaped plot, and shows great narrative daring and experiment. Private experience and public history are seen in parallel in this highly charged examination of human suffering and human sacrifice.