A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens brought his gcnius to the story of the most dramatic revolution the world has known. and the result—A Tale of Two Cities—is a novel so vivid and absorbing that over the years readers have come to picture the Frcnch Revolution as Dickcns imagined it.

The novel teems with the kinds of characters and memorable scenes that we have come to expect of Dickens, but it is touchcd also with a passion and power that few of his novels possess. As we arc caught up in the tcndcr story of Lucie Nlanettc and the two men who love her, we are never allowed to forget the terrifying figure of Madame Dcfarge and all she rep- resents—the violence and lust for vengeance of a furious, uncontrollablc mob—a violence and a sense of urgency that few novclists have captured and sus- tained so well.