A Tale of Two Cities

Zusatztext “[ A Tale of Two Cities ] has the best of Dickens and the worst of Dickens: a dark! driven opening! and a celestial but melodramatic ending; a terrifyingly demonic villainess and (even by Dickens’ standards) an impossibly angelic heroine. Though its version of the French Revolution is brutally simplified! its engagement with the immense moral themes of rebirth and terror! justice! and sacrifice gets right to the heart of the matter . . . For every reader in the past hundred and forty years and for hundreds to come! it is an unforgettable ride.” –from the Introduction by Simon Schama Informationen zum Autor Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Portsmouth, England, and spent most of his life in London. When he was twelve, his father was sent to debtor’s prison and he was forced to work in a boot polish factory, an experience that marked him for life. He became a passionate advocate of social reform and the most popular writer of the Victorian era. Klappentext Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most popular and dramatic stories. It begins on a muddy English road in an atmosphere charged with mystery and it ends in the Paris of the Revolution with one of the most famous acts of self-sacrifice in literature. In between lies one of Dickens's most exciting books-a historical novel that, generation after generation, has given readers access to the profound human dramas that lie behind cataclysmic social and political events. Famous for its vivid characters, including the courageous French nobleman Charles Darnay, the vengeful revolutionary Madame Defarge, and cynical Englishman Sydney Carton, who redeems his ill-spent life in a climactic moment at the guillotine ("It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done"), the novel is also a powerful study of crowd psychology and the dark emotions aroused by the Revolution, illuminated by Dickens's lively comedy. With an Introduction by Simon SchamaCHAPTER 1 THE PERIOD IT WAS THE best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood. Fr...

Product details

• Authors: Charles Dickens, Simon Schama
• Assisted by: Simon Schama (Introduction)
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 14.07.1990
• EAN: 9780679729655
• ISBN: 978-0-679-72965-5
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 200 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Vintage Classics; VINTAGE CLASSICS
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature