A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to life 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. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

First published in 1993. This annotated bibliography covers all material relating to A Tale o f Two Cities from Dickens’s first hints of it in his Book o f Memoranda to critical studies published in 1991. It is divided into three main parts: “Text,” “Studies,” and “Selected Bibliography.”

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' Vividly interweaving epic historical drama with personal tragedy, Dickens's gripping novel depicts the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, as they become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette, the daughter of a political prisoner. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Richard Maxwell

This Top Five Classics edition of A Tale of Two Cities includes: • More than 40 illustrations by “Phiz” (Hablot K. Browne) from the original 1859 edition and Frederick Barnard from the 1872 edition • Author bio and bibliography • Introduction by Dickens scholar and novelist Andrei Baltakmens A Tale of Two Cities opens in 1775, when Doctor Manette is reunited with his daughter Lucie after having been locked away in the Bastille for 18 years. Lucie nurtures her half-mad father back to health, but their troubles are far from over, as their lives become entangled with the emigrant son of the Marquis St. Evrémonde, the wayward ne’er-do-well Sydney Carton, and the vengeful Madame and Monsieur Defarge. Set against the terror and turmoil of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s most loved works—a historical adventure of high drama and surprising depth.

Often criticised for its melodramatic 'soap-opera' plot, Dickens' bold treatment of the violence and terrors of the French Revolution is still widely read and enjoyed today. This text looks at critical themes in the novel, as well as looking closely at the context in which it is set