SynopsisIt is a historical fiction classic, written in 1859, set in London and Paris. The story is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror with acts of bravery and conspiracy, secrets and lies, imprisonment and torture, sorrow and loss, corruption and and altruism. After 18 years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter Lucie in England, whom he had never met. Lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become entangled through their love for Lucie Manette. And thus, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror.
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About the author
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, the second of eight children. Dickens?s childhood experiences were similar to those depicted in David Copperfield. His father, who was a government clerk, was imprisoned for debt and Dickens was briefly sent to work in a blacking warehouse at the age of twelve. He received little formal education, but taught himself shorthand and became a reporter of parliamentary debates for the Morning Chronicle. He began to publish sketches in various periodicals, which were subsequently republished as Sketches by Boz. The Pickwick Papers were published in 1836?37 and after a slow start became a publishing phenomenon and Dickens?s characters the centre of a popular cult. Part of the secret of his success was the method of cheap serial publication which Dickens used for all his novels. He began Oliver Twist in 1837, followed by Nicholas Nickleby (1838) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840?41). After finishing Barnaby Rudge (1841), Dickens set off for America; he went full of enthusiasm for the young republic but, in spite of a triumphant reception, he returned disillusioned. His experiences are recorded in American Notes (1842). Martin Chuzzlewit (1843?44) did not repeat its predecessors? success but this was quickly redressed by the huge popularity of the Christmas Books, of which the first, A Christmas Carol, appeared in 1843. During 1844?46, Dickens travelled abroad and he began Dombey and Son while in Switzerland. This and David Copperfield (1849?50) were more serious in theme and more carefully planned than his early novels. In later works, such as Bleak House (1853) and Little Dorrit (1857), Dickens?s social criticism became more radical and his comedy more savage. In 1850, Dickens started the weekly periodical Household Words, succeeded in 1859 by All the Year Round; in these he published Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860?61). Dickens?s health was failing during the 1860s and the physical strain of the public readings which he began in 1858 hastened his decline, although Our Mutual Friend (1865) retained some of his best comedy. His last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was never completed and he died on 9 June 1870. Public grief at his death was considerable and he was buried in the Poets? Corner of Westminster Abbey.