A Tale of Two Cities
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Dent
Published: 1983
Place of publication: London and Melbourne
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780460101028
Description: Dickens took down from his shelves, Carlyle's French Revolution, digested it whole, then proceeded to write what G.K. Chesterton calls (and many will agree with him after reading this book) 'Dickens's French Revolution,' which is probably more like the real French Revolution than Carlyle's'.

Few romances of those historic days can compete with the rich panorama of life presented here. 'For all its blood and its black guillotines the French Revolution was full of mere high spirits.' Dickens gained his sense of period through his old trick discovering high spirits and he wrote about it with gusto: yet A Tale of Two Cities>/i> is unlike any other book of Dickens's. There is London, ominously calm, sensing events across the water, the very breezes about her streets carrying with them an almost perceptible excitement of the mob singing and dancing the Carmagnole. There is a fevered Paris where the creek and groan of the tumbrils rise above the chatter of the women who knit at the foot of 'Madame Guillotine.' Above all looms the singular figure of Sydney Carton, silent, dominant, passively observant, who unites the story in both realms.
--Jacket flap
Table of contents: title: Introduction
pagenum: V
authors: G. K. Chesterton; title: Book the First: Recalled to Life; label: I
title: The Period
pagenum: 1; label: II
title: The Mail
pagenum: 4; label: III
title: The Night Shadows
pagenum: 9; label: IV
title: The Preparation
pagenum: 14; label: V
title: The Wine Shop
pagenum: 25; label: VI
title: The Shoemaker
pagenum: 36; title: Book the Second: The Golden Thread; label: I
title: Five Years Later
pagenum: 48; label: II
title: A Sight
pagenum: 54; label: III
title: A Disappointment
pagenum: 61; label: IV
title: Congratulatory
pagenum: 74; label: V
title: The Jackal
pagenum: 80; label: VI
title: Hundreds of People
pagenum: 86; label: VII
title: Monseigneur in Town
pagenum: 99; label: VIII
title: Monseigneur in the Country
pagenum: 108; label: IX
title: The Gorgon's Head
pagenum: 113; label: X
title: Two Promises
pagenum: 125; label: XI
title: A Companion Picture
pagenum: 133; label: XII
title: The Fellow of Delicacy
pagenum: 137; label: XIII
title: The Fellow of No Delicacy
pagenum: 144; label: XIV
title: The Honest Tradesman
pagenum: 149; label: XV
title: Knitting
pagenum: 159; label: XVI
title: Still Knitting
pagenum: 171; label: XVII
title: One Night
pagenum: 182; label: XVIII
title: Nine Days
pagenum: 187; label: XIX
title: An Opinion
pagenum: 193; label: XX
title: A Plea
pagenum: 201; label: XXI
title: Echoing Footsteps
pagenum: 204; label: XXII
title: The Sea Still Rises
pagenum: 216; label: XXIII
title: Fire Rises
pagenum: 221; label: XXIV
title: Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
pagenum: 229; title: Book the Third: The Track of a Storm; label: I
title: In Secret
pagenum: 241; label: II
title: The Grindstone
pagenum: 253; label: III
title: The Shadow
pagenum: 259; label: IV
title: Calm in Storm
pagenum: 264; label: V
title: The Wood-Sawyer
pagenum: 270; label: VI
title: Triumph
pagenum: 276; label: VII
title: A Knock at the Door
pagenum: 283; label: VIII
title: A Hand at Cards
pagenum: 288; label: IX
title: The Game Made
pagenum: 301; label: X
title: The Substance of the Shadow
pagenum: 313; label: XI
title: Dusk
pagenum: 328; label: XII
title: Darkness
pagenum: 332; label: XIII
title: Fifty-Two
pagenum: 341; label: XIV
title: The Knitting Done
pagenum: 353; label: XV
title: The Footsteps Die Out for Ever
pagenum: 365