A Tale of Two Cities (Puffin Classics) - Softcover

This stirring tale of resurrection, renunciation and revolution is one of Charles Dickens' most popular novels. The two cities are Paris and London. Dr Manette has been confined for l8 years in the Bastille because he found out the Marquis de Evremonde and his brother had ill treated a girl and mortally wounded a young boy. He has just been released and brought to England. Charles Darnay, who conceals the fact that he is the Marquis's nephew has left France and renounced his heritage because he hates the cruelty of the French nobility. He falls in love with Lucie, Dr Manette's daughter, and they get married. During the terrible revolution he goes to Paris to try and save a faithful servant, but is himself arrested and condemned to death and is saved only at the last moment by Sydney Carton, a reckless wastrel of an English barrister whose character is redeemed by his generous devotion to Lucie. Carton, who strongly resembles Darnay in appearance smuggles the latter out of prison and takes his place on the scaffold.

Charles Dickens (1812–70) is one of the most recognized celebrities of English literature. His imagination, wit, mastery of the language and huge creative output single him out as one of the few people who genuinely deserve to be called genius. He had a poverty-stricken childhood and was determined to improve himself. By his early twenties he found a job as a parliamentary reporter and in his spare time wrote sketches of London life for newspapers and magazines. The publication of Pickwick Papers (1836) brought him the fame and fortune he craved. He wrote many other famous books including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol.