Author: Charles Dickens
Illustrator: Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Cover artist: Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Country:United Kingdom
Language: English
Series Weekly: 30 April 1859 – 26 November 1859
Genre: Novel, Historical, Social criticism
Publisher London: Chapman & Hall
Publication date: 1859
Media type: Print (Serial, Hardback, and Paperback)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a
novel by Charles Dickens, set inLondon and Paris before and during the
French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks
among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature.
The novel depicts the plight of the
French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years
leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated
by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years
of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in
London during the same time period.
It follows the lives of several
protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay
and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim
to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous
nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to
redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay’s wife.
The 45-chapter novel was published in 31
weekly installments in Dickens’ new literary periodical titled All the
Year Round. From April 1859 to November 1859, Dickens also republished
the chapters as eight monthly sections in green covers. Dickens’
previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments.
The first weekly installment of A Tale of
Two Cities ran in the first issue of All the Year Round on 30 April
1859. The last ran thirty weeks later, on 26 November.
