A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: Free EPUB, AZW3 & KEPUB Download
A Tale of Two Cities
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Book the First: Recalled to Life — I: 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.
Immerse yourself in Charles Dickens’s masterpiece of London and Paris during the Reign of Terror. Download the complete unabridged edition for your e-reader.
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About A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Published in weekly installments in Dickens’s journal All the Year Round between April and November 1859, A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s most dramatic historical novel.
This A Tale of Two Cities summary and analysis explores its plot, characters, and themes. It remains one of the best-selling fictional works in literary history.
Moving between London and revolutionary Paris, Dickens examines the terrifying machinery of history.
He explores the cyclical nature of aristocratic tyranny followed by the uncontrollable fury of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.
The story opens with the phrase “Recalled to Life.” Dr. Alexandre Manette, unjustly entombed in the Bastille for eighteen years, is released into the care of the daughter he has never known, Lucie.
Her steadfast love gently restores his shattered sanity.
Five years later in London, Lucie’s family connects with Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who has renounced his cruel ancestral heritage.
They also meet Sydney Carton, a brilliant but dissolute English barrister wasted by alcoholism and cynical self-loathing.
Both men fall in love with Lucie. While Darnay wins her hand in marriage, Carton swears an unspoken, sacred vow.
He will embrace any sacrifice to preserve the happiness of Lucie and those she loves.
When the storming of the Bastille unleashes mob fury across Paris, Darnay is lured back to rescue an innocent former family servant.
Denounced by the vengeful knitting of Madame Defarge for the ancestral crimes of his aristocratic family, Darnay is condemned to the guillotine.
In the climactic hour, Carton slips into the prison cell, drugs Darnay, exchanges clothes and places with his double, and mounts the scaffold in his stead.
His ultimate sacrifice redeems a wasted life, buying eternal peace and resurrection for those he loves.
A Tale of Two Cities Key Characters
- Sydney Carton (The Sacrificial Lamb & Redeemed Prodigal): A brilliant, self-loathing lawyer drowning in cynicism and drink.
- His hopeless, pure love for Lucie gives his wasted life ultimate purpose, as he ascends the guillotine like a Christ-like figure of atonement.
- He is one of the most memorable A Tale of Two Cities characters.
- Charles Darnay / Evrémonde (The Noble Exile & Burdened Heir): An upright French aristocrat who renounces his cruel family inheritance to live as a modest French tutor in London.
- Despite his personal innocence, he is nearly crushed by the collective guilt of his aristocratic caste.
- Lucie Manette (The Golden Thread & Domestic Healer): Compassionate and gentle, Lucie is the moral and emotional anchor of the narrative.
- Her radiant love weaves the “golden thread” that restores her father’s lost identity and inspires Carton’s spiritual salvation.
- Dr. Alexandre Manette (The Resurrected Martyr & Traumatized Witness): An innocent physician imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years for exposing aristocratic atrocities.
- Relapsing into compulsive cobbling during acute stress, he embodies the psychological trauma of authoritarian oppression.
- Madame Therese Defarge (The Avenging Nemesis & Merciless Terror): The implacable revolutionary wine-shop keeper who knits the register of doomed aristocrats.
- Traumatized in youth by the horrors inflicted on her family by the Evrémondes, she represents historical retribution transformed into blind, bloodthirsty hatred.
- Ernest Defarge & Jarvis Lorry (The Pragmatic Agents): Defarge struggles between past loyalty to Dr. Manette and brutal revolutionary zeal.
- The aging banker Jarvis Lorry embodies British commercial stability, unshakeable professional loyalty, and tender domestic stewardship.
A Tale of Two Cities Themes & Historical Significance
- Resurrection, Rebirth, and Spiritual Atonement: Anchored in the gospel promise that those who lose their life will find it, the theme of resurrection (“Recalled to Life”) runs from Dr. Manette’s emergence from the Bastille to Carton’s sublime martyrdom.
- This is one of the central A Tale of Two Cities themes.
- The Inevitable Cycle of Oppression and Retribution: Dickens delivers a stark warning to Victorian society.
- Systemic injustice and cruelty from ruling elites inevitably brew explosive vengeance, which in turn becomes as monstrous and tyrannical as the oppression it replaced.
- The Double and Transformed Identity: Carton and Darnay serve as physical and moral mirror images.
- One is the respectable man blessed with family and love; the other is his shadow self who ultimately discovers moral transcendence through voluntary sacrifice.
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