A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Dickens's famous opening sentence introduces the universal approach of the book, the French Revolution, and the drama depicted
A Tale of Two Cities Round" and led to talk of plagiarism. Other sources are "" by Thomas Carlyle (especially important for the novel's rhetoric and symbolism); "Zanoni" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton; "The Castle Spector" by Matthew Lewis; "Travels in France" by Arthur Young; and "Tableau de Paris" by Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Dickens also used material from an account of imprisonment during the Terror by Beaumarchais, and records of the trial of a French spy published in "The Annual Register". The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly instalments in Dickens's new literary periodical titled "All the Year Round". From April 1859 to November 1859, Dickens also