A Tale of Two Cities.

Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.The Circumlocution Office2023-07-16T21:08:45+01:00

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period.

You can read all of the Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities on our site in easily laid out one page to a chapter format. Use the Chapter links at the top of the page to access or click here to start reading.

Vengeful revolutionaries, a body snatcher and an alcoholic lawyer. Discover the characters that make up the story of A Tale of Two Cities.

Some of the most memorable quotes written by Charles Dickens come from A Tale of Two Cities. Discover our fully referenced archive of A Tale of Two Cities quotations and have a chance to give each a rating.

From the notorious prisons of Bastille and La Force to the alley way where the grave robber Jerry Cruncher lived, discover the real places Charles Dickens used in his historical novel with our A Tale of Two Cities Trail.

A Tale of Two Cities is set around the years leading up to the French Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror. Discover more about the historical setting of A Tale of Two Cities with our features on the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror and a timeline of the main events in the novel.

A Tale of Two Cities represented the end of a twenty year partnership between Charles Dickens and the illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, more commonly known by his pen name, Phiz.

There have been a number of screen adaptations of A Tale of Two Cities.

Discover A Tale of Two Cities.

You can read all of the Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities on our site in easily laid out one page to a chapter format. Use the Chapter links at the top of the page to access or click here to start reading. If you want the location of particular A Tale of Two Cities pages or chapters for reference or academic purposes you can use our study links page.

1841 The Sultanate of Brunei cedes Sarawak to the United Kingdom.

1852 Giffard dirigible flies. In France, the first powered and steerable airship proves its ability when it flies from the hippodrome at Place de l'Etoile in Paris to Élancourt, covering a distance of 27 km (17 miles) in around 3 hours. The airship, which was built and piloted by engineer Henri Giffard, did not have sufficient power to make the return journey.

1869 Black Friday. In the United States, gold prices plummet after President Ulysses Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities after two investors, Jay Gould and James Fisk, attempted to control the market. Gould and Fisk had befriended Abel Corbin, brother-in-law of the president, attempting to influence regular government gold sales to pay off the national debt.

1846 Battle of Monterrey. During the Mexican–American War (1846-1848), a mix of United States forces under the command of General Zachary Taylor capture the northern Mexican city of Monterrey after defeating Mexican forces under General Pedro de Ampudia in a battle lasting four days.