A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities was published serially in 1859. As a historical novel about the French Revolution, however, it takes us back to 18th century London and Paris. A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s most well-known works.
A Tale of Two Cities was initially published in 31 weekly parts, from 30 April to 26 November 1859, as the lead piece in Dickens’s new journal, All the Year Round. The journal was a miscellany, costing 2 pence per week, which featured serialised novels, short fiction, poetry, travel writing and various non-fiction pieces, written by a multitude of authors.
The novel tells the struggles caused by the French Revolution and the dangers that come with blanket persecutions of people for their connections rather than for their deeds.
Although the protagonist and main character Charles Darnay is connected to the French aristocracy by blood, he has renounced all connection to the family and sympathizes with the oppressed citizens of France. However, some revolutionaries are unable to see past his lineage and he is doomed to suffer for the crimes of his ancestors despite his life’s actions.
1757-1794: The Period Represented in the Novel
Though A Tale of Two Cities begins in 1770 with Doctor Manette’s release from the Bastille and ends in late 1793 or early 1794, the story as a whole covers a much broader period. In the larger view, the novel begins in 1757 (the year of Doctor Manette’s incarceration under the ancien régime) and its final scene anticipates a post-revolutionary Paris. However, as a historical novel organized around the events of the French Revolution (1789-1794), the major historical features of A Tale of Two Cities are drawn from the major events of the revolutionary period in France – the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the September Massacres (September 2-6, 1792), and the Reign of Terror (1793-1794).
From a historical point of view, A Tale of Two Cities gives a rather compressed account of the French Revolution; yet this is appropriate in a novel concerned as much with the lives of private individuals as with public events. Dickens researched the revolutionary period carefully in preparation for writing A Tale of Two Cities, and the novel maintains a high level of historical accuracy. Complete historical explanations will be found in the notes that accompany each issue of this re-serialization.
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