August 2014 Guest Editor Gerald Seymour on A Tale of Two Cities...
The most important book to me, the greatest influence on my own writing, has to be ‘Tale of Two Cities’. It is a classic novel and also a superb thriller, and it produces the most compelling hero of British literature, Sidney Carton. I am a huge fan of the atmospheric writing that describes the hard, mean streets of Paris at the time of the Revolution, the power and brutality of the mob when passions are let loose, but above all is the Carton character: he is the failed, booze ridden advocate who can dominate a massive court room scene when a life is on the line, win when it matters. The lines at the end of the story as he gives his own life to protect the husband of the woman he has put on a personal pedestal are incredibly moving, and his gentleness with the young girl who will go before him up the steps to the guillotine. Wonderful, and an inspiration.
September 2013 Guest Editor Daisy Waugh on A Tale of Two Cities...
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – is the Emperor of historical fiction, after all. I remember weeping like a baby at the end of it… And boring everyone silly (as if I were making a new discovery) about what an earth shatteringly brilliant novel it was...
A 2012 World Book Night selection.
This text is a revised edition of Dickens' classic tale.
| Primary Genre | Classic fiction: general and literary |
| Recommendations: |
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A Tale of Two Cities, a story of revolution, revenge and sacrifice, is one of Charles Dickens' most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a family threatened by the terrible events of the past.
Dr Manette, wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years, is finally released and reunited with his daughter Lucie who, despite her French ancestry, has been brought up in London. Lucie falls in love with Charles Darnay, who has abandoned both wealth and title in France because of his political convictions. When revolution breaks out in Paris, Darnay returns to the city to help an old family servant, but is soon arrested because of the crimes committed by his relations. Lucie, aided by young lawyer, Sydney Carton, follows him across the Channel, thus putting all their lives in danger.
With an afterword by Sam Gilpin.
Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
A Tale of Two Cities features in the following genres: Classic fiction: general and literary, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
A Tale of Two Cities is available in Hardback, Paperback, CD-Audio
A Tale of Two Cities was written by Charles Dickens and published by Macmillan Collector's Library an imprint of Pan Macmillan
A Tale of Two Cities has 520 pages
Yes it is part of Macmillan Collector's Library series
£10.79
