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A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
Audiobook13 hours

A Tale of Two Cities

Written by Charles Dickens

Narrated by Simon Vance

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

This novel provides a highly charged examination of human suffering and human sacrifice, private experience and public history, during the French Revolution.

A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a family threatened by the terrible events of the past. Doctor Manette was wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years without trial by the aristocratic authorities. Finally released, he is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, who despite her French ancestry has been brought up in London. Lucie falls in love with Charles Darnay, another expatriate, who has abandoned wealth and a title in France because of his political convictions. When revolution breaks out in Paris, Darnay returns to the city to help an old family servant, but there he is arrested because of the crimes committed by his relations. His wife, Lucie, their young daughter, and her aged father follow him across the channel, thus putting all their lives in danger.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 14, 2008
ISBN9781400176366
Author

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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Reviews for A Tale of Two Cities

Rating: 3.9414095667339293 out of 5 stars
4/5

6,938 ratings218 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a timeless story. Human nature just doesn’t change. Wonderful narration. Brilliant storytelling by Dickens
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maybe not Dickens' best, but reading it is like visting an old friend. You tell the same old stories, laugh at the same old jokes, and find it endlessly entertaining and comforting. And is there anything quite so dramatic as the conversation between Jerry Cruncher & Mrs. Pross as Madame DeFarge approaches?
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Documentair zeker waardevol, maar als roman echt mislukt.Geen doorlopende verhaallijn: de stukjes lijken nergens naar toe te voeren.Stilistisch: soms opflakkerend, maar over het algemeen flauw; overdreven toepassing van de spiegelingstechniek (Londen-Parijs, Darnay-Carton)nogal doorzichtig-sociaal gedreven
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A well read version of a timeless classic! Highly recommend!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Probably nothing I can say that hasn't been said before: a socially-conscious novel from Dickens full of gorgeous description and startling passages of anger against the inhumanity of man. Particularly interesting to read in 2016, as the Arab world recovers from several years of revolution and the English-speaking Western world faces some surprising outsider politicians.

    Coming along in 1859, after Dickens had spent a couple of years primarily enjoying the theatre lifestyle and working for the betterment of sick children, it seems as if CD felt the need to write a historical novel to cleanse some personal creative desires. His 12th novel (and 20th important work), Two Cities doesn't seem to follow logically from the works that precede it. Unlike most of Dickens' novels, the characters here are particularly wooden (Lucie Manette just seems to faint a lot, really, and Dr. Manette and Charles exist primarily for things to happen to them) and the plot rather straightforward. I've seen it likened to Barnaby Rudge but I somewhat disagree; that book still had a lot of typical Dickensian aspects to it, even if it was ultimately a "historical novel" like this one. Still, it's a quick and entertaining read, with plenty of alternating sentimentalism and anger. The two most redeeming characters - Madame Defarge and Miss Pross - make it all worthwhile. How can anyone not adore a woman so English she refuses to cross the Channel? And Sydney Carton's final internal monologue is every bit the equal of that powerful first paragraph. Sydney is not as developed a character as those who came before, but this seems in part because he is seen through other people's eyes so often. Nevertheless, the desire to start him off so unlikable and gradually create his portrait is admirable.

    The relatively few bits of humour in the novel are less successful, because Cruncher lacks the human elements of previous grotesques but also lacks the purely "fantastic" elements that allow us to separate our sense of morals from our respect for their self-preservation. Miss Pross is good for a few laughs, admittedly! Still, for the kind of work it is, A Tale of Two Cities is a dashing good read nonetheless. Now on to the final black spot in my knowledge of his books: Our Mutual Friend!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a Superb reading of this treasured classic story
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love History, but this was a tad too slow.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A drunkard loser lawyer is pulled into the drama of the Darnay family, who foolishly returned to post-revolutionary France. Sydney Carton defends them as best he can, but the wheels of revolution and vengeance will not be stopped for long.
    My second favorite Dickens novel.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Dry and boring all.... the.... way .... through ?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I started this book for two main reasons. First, I read Great Expectations last year for the second time and love it. Second, I teach A.P. European History and we study the French Revolution in detail each year. Since this book is the classic novel of the time period, it only makes sense that I read it. Now that I am finished, I am truly glad that I chose to read the book. Dickens does a fantastic job of bringing out the emotions and chaos of Paris during the Reign of Terror. From the blind hatred and violence of the Defarges and their fellow "citizens", to the love and heartache of the Manette and Darnay families, I felt immersed and connected with all the characters involved. It is easy to read the history books and learn all about the Revolution, but living the story through the mind of Dickens has given me a real appreciation of what it was like.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “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 believe. 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.” The Tale of Two Cities was originally serialized in the author's own periodical All the Year Round beginning in 1859. Dickens uses a period of history roughly 70 years earlier to parallel present times. He is warning England of the dangers of revolution as occurred in the French Revolution. Doing history was a way of capturing the pressure of the time. "The weight of this time must we obey; Speak what we feel and not what we aught to say."As one who likes the detail with which Dickens develops a story, I did seem to get bogged down in the middle of a Tale of Two Cities. The point in the story where everyone is confessing his love for Lucie seemed to stall for me. I was already there with most of the characterization that was being portrayed by these various confessions. “In the hour of my death, I shall hold sacred the one good remembrance—and shall thank and bless you for it—that my last avowal of myself was made to you, and that my name, and faults, and miseries were gently carried in your heart. May it otherwise be light and happy!” Sydney Carton has resurrected his poor drudged self into a savior for the love of remembrance. Memory plays a key role in this history of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of an English novelist 70 years later. It is the memory of the evils of nobility that forge the vengeance that the Defarges shape into Revolution. As in many of Dickens novels, memory in a Tale of Two Cities revolves around one event that the main characters share in. It’s a small world after all.Recalled to LifeAs Dr. Manette was buried alive so did Charles Evremonde bury his past to become Charles Darnay only to join Dr. Manette’s earlier fate. But, there is the ever-present Jerry Cruncher to dig him out again. It seems all the characters experienced individual resurrection of some sort or other. By the end of the novel, Darnay is one of three characters that have experienced a spiritual rebirth, and it is resurrection with decidedly Christian overtones that comprises the salient theme of the novel. Intertwined together in the theme of resurrection and renewal, life, death and rebirth in this story of the French Revolution. Dickens implores his readers to undertake their own spiritual renewal, to shun the desire for revenge and to act in a spirit of Christian compassion and self-sacrifice towards those in their midst.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    While I initially struggled to understand this book, I was very glad I stuck with the text and fought through my lack of comprehension. While Dickens is a rather verbose writer, I enjoyed his attention to detail and description as I became increasingly connected with the characters and events of the story. Dickens did an incredible job describing the utter wretched state of the poorer classes in France. The rising tide of anger and frustration amongst this group made me think about how this type of revolution could occur right here in the United States, with the rich becoming wealthier and the poor and middle class, shouldering the tax burdens moreso.I did find the relationship between Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette very predictable. However, I was glad that this relationship did in fact occur, as Charles' character and morals were best suited for someone who could share them. The love between Charles and Lucie was believable and, while Lucie was a tender-hearted woman, she had a wealth of strength and resolve which helped her withstand the challenges of her mentally ill father and later, her imprisoned husband.Women, while second-rate citizens, really were instrumental in the development of this story. Lucie was truly, one of the strongest characters. Her innocence, faith and compassion allowed her to aid in the healing of her father and extend mercy to Mr. Stryver. Lucie also loved Mr. Lorry and made him feel as though he had a daughter and was able to share in a love that was important to him, as he became older. Lucie's character was also instrumental in Miss Pross' actions at the end of the story. The love and devotion between these two women were strong bonds which kept them connected and willing to lay down their lives for each other. Madam Defarge, while often found knitting in her husband's wine shop, was instrumental in the revolution of the Saint Antoine neighborhood and the killing of many aristocrats of that area. She and the Vengeance, together, led the women of St. Antoine to take up arms and revolt against those who had made their lives miserable. Sadly, these women became misdirected in their hatred of the aristocracy and began thirsting for the blood of innocent men and women."A Tale of Two Cities" is a fine work of art. While it revealed the emerging events of the French Revolution, it revealed quite a bit about the human condition. Lest we learn that materialism and the hunger for wealth are meaningless, we too, are destined to find ourselves faced with a revolution of some sort. It is humility and compassion, such as demonstrated by Lucie and Charles, that we should all embrace.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great historical dramatic Dickens novel read by a great narrator!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It was the best of times, it was the worse of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… Thus starts one of my favorite books. This could have been written today, for it is so appropriate to our times! And who doesn’t know the first words of Dicken’s “Tale of Two Cities”? Well, actually I had never read it—English not being my mother tongue—and am very glad I do now. What a marvelous book. (I actually read about it in Mrs. Kantor’s excellent “Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.”) This is the story of love’s redeeming qualities: it purifies the soul, it saves the lost—the best of times; it is also the story of the horrors of the French Revolution and its many excesses and crimes—the worse of times… A tale of love and hate, of the duality of human soul, but also the endurance of good. The movies I watched based upon this book could not perfectly recreate the beauty of its very touching end: one must read it to understand its meaning in the author's own words. Dickens was certainly a Christian man and everywhere we find mentions of God; but I am inclined to believe this will not be an impediment to the agnostic or the atheist readers. Definitely a must read for its literary quality, its lessons and the unmistakable Dickensonian style.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A lot of it was boring and too dragged on.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Charles dickens only wrote one historical novel, and this is it. It is hard to find a year when there is not a new edition of this work. The plot hinges on the very odd occasion of twp men, not linked genetically, who are identical twins. They are contrasted, the favoured one, who is monied and blessed with the love of a beautiful girl, and the other who is a self made lawyer's clerk. they are finally acquainted, and the less well off person, chooses to sacrifice himself so that the well-to-do one may continue his pampered existence. Not a favourite plot of mine. There is a reasonable attempt to cover some of the incidents of the French revolution, but it does not shine in that area. The book was first published in 1859.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm glad I finished this book. Let's be honest, I almost want to give up on this one, yet I loved this book. The main reason I almost gave up was for the dumb fact I read a Victorian book during the summer. Note to self, don't read Victorian books during the summer. Should have stuck with my easy reads. OH WELL! At least I gave myself a challenge.

    With that said, I do like this book a lot. If this didn't take place during the French Revolution, I'd think I'd be bored with it. Some people like the characters in this novel, to me that the only fault I found. I didn't really care for any of them. Inset what I liked about this book was the time period. It kept the story interesting and it was a character on it's own.

    I wish Dickens wouldn't add so many characters in his book some times. I like the names he uses and usually like the main character, but the other characters he creates aren't very interesting in my mind. and like I said before, this one is an example of that.

    A Christmas Carol is the only other Dickens thing I read before this and liked that better. It was easier to follow and the character I liked better too. I still liked A Tale of Two Cities, but he could of cut out some of his characters in this one.

    I still think this is a book everyone should read. Let's face it if you don't know the first line in this book, then I question your reading material. Can't say this is Dickens best work (cause it's not my favorite out of the two I read), but I love his writing style in this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am not sure that anything I can say will add any value to the wealth of critical comment already available for this classic novel. I first read it towards the end of the last millennium (to lend an appropriately archaic feel) as one of the set books for my English Literature O level (the predecessor of what we would today call GCSEs). I was fortunate to enjoy the support of some excellent English teachers throughout my time at school, yet even their attentive ministrations failed to save this book from falling prey to the fate of most works that are encountered as compulsory reading. As a fifteen-year-old I found it very tedious and longwinded, and could not then imagine I might ever read it again for pleasure.To be fair, I think that tedious and longwinded are not always unfair when applied to Dickens, and would cite either Barnaby Rudge (surely there is an initial D missing from that surname) or Our Mutual Friend as evidence for the prosecution. (Indeed, it is quite a feat on Dickens’ part to make tedious a novel that starts so promisingly, with bodies being dragged from the Thames late at night.)They are not, however, fair for A Tale of Two Cities. Going off at another tangent, I have been struggling to think of another book which has such famous first AND last sentences: there are plenty that can offer one or the other, but few that manage both. The story is, of course, well known, so I won’t waste everyone’s time with a synopsis of the plot. There are some excellent characters: Jarvis Lorry, the serious solicitor who has given his professional life in service of Tellson’s Bank is a paragon of probity, always clad in various shades of brown. Not a man overburdened with humour, and perhaps not one with whom one might wish to be closeted on a long journey (although that fate befalls various people throughout the book). Jerry Cruncher is a hardy perennial from the Dickens stable: a Cockney, salt of the earth type, vaguely reminiscent of Silas Wegg, though better served in the leg department, or less chirpy Sam Weller, who is always on hand to do Mr Lorry’s or Tellson’s bidding, but who has a dark secret. C J Stryver, the pompous, overbearing barrister is brilliantly drawn, hyperinflated with his own self-importance and clothed in obtuseness as in armour of triple steel. Paradoxically, the more central figures seem less substantial. Charles Darnay (another man with a secret) is rather two dimensional, and the reader almost wishes that his lookalike, the diffident and dissolute lawyer Sidney Carton, whose nocturnal efforts keep legal Stryver’s practice afloat, but with precious little acknowledgement of that debt) had won Lucie Manette’s love.Like most of Dickens’ n ovels, this was published in weekly or fortnightly instalments, a fact reflected in the peaks and troughs of action throughout, as the writer carefully regulated the flow to leave sufficiently gripping cliff-hangers. Dickens was a master at conflicting tone. The chapter in which Jerry Cruncher’s sun follows his father on a nocturnal expedition, expecting to see him go fishing, is hilarious, although the mirth is in sharp juxtaposition with a chapter of huge sadness.This is a novel that repays reading for pleasure. It is also a more manageable length for modern taste than some of his heftier tomes. I read it in the excellent Penguin Classics edition which offers extensive background notes throughout the story, and an introduction full of insight (possibly aimed more at informing a re-reading, than for someone coming to the story for the first time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Why has it taken me so long to go back and read this incredible book?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Having read my way through Dickens in publication order to this point, I'm of two minds about this entry. I probably did this Dickens novel a disservice - and myself - by reading it on the heels of "Citizens" by Siman Schama, a thick non-fiction history about the French Revolution. Dickens' overdramatization of revolutionary elements rubbed me wrong in a few places, and that had some side effects. I was irritated with the more-than-usual obfuscating language in the opening chapters, and their thick layer of sentimentality I hadn't seen so much of since The Old Curiosity Shop, my least favourite. It's a more poetic look at mobs and mob behaviour than he's done before, but weaker for not being as close or insightful a study as we saw in Barnaby Rudge. This version relies on symbols for brevity, the Defarges standing in for practically every historical figure on the revolutionary side.I struggled to find a favourite character among these many reversions of prior Dickens figures, settling for Dr. Manette because of his unusual ailment but only reminding me of how mild the Bastille experience actually was for its inmates. Besides the usual Dickens flaws - the boatload of coincidence, weak female characterizations, domestic abuse presented as humour - what impressed me least was the plot. Dickens had his end in mind and drives straight towards it without any side trips, only throwing in some revolutionary glimpses for decoration. That's hardly the stuff of Bleak House. And then comes the other hand. In its delineated third part, there are improvements in every respect. Dr. Manette acquires a new fascinating aspect to his character, Charles earned my sympathy, and the plot introduces some nasty twists in its path. Most important, the revolutionary period of France is thrown into the bold and detailed relief that was lacking to this point. Finally I obtained a sense of what it would truly be like to live in the midst of that hair-raising Terror tumult with its irrational courts and bloodshed in the streets, and it fits with all the facts I know plus adds a few I didn't. Therese Defarge takes on an especially epic scale of menace with her sewing needles, possibly earning the crown among Dickens villains. And there are braver examples here of men facing death than the one Fagin set so long ago. I'm reminded of David Copperfield, with its strange lull through the middle, except that the problems here extend through the beginning as well. Is a fantastic and stirring third act enough to compensate for all? It raises this novel well above Curiosity Shop, and I think it's stronger than Hard Times, another of Dickens' shorter novels, but it cannot rank among his best.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great story, Great opening line. Great closing line.Not the easiest read with Dickens old fashion style of writing.Set during the French Revolution and the reign of terror. There are time jumps.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lucy & Charles, Dr. Minette, and the menacing de Farge's. Hearing it, rather than reading it, helped me get through this classic with some understanding of the plot and what was going on. I will have to try some other Dickens because I really enjoyed this one!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When my high schooler was complaining about having to read this for school I took the opportunity to read along in solidarity and also as an excuse to final read something that I wished I had read many years ago and consider a gap in my classics reading experience.So my kid didn't love it, but I really did. To be fair - in college this sort of thing was what I gravitated towards and I read quite a fair amount of 17th-19th century lit, so it didn't have the same intimidation factor as it had for my kid. In fact, I kept (inwardly) marvelling over how short it was for Dickens. Anyway, for me, it was a treat. The story was most of the time pretty gripping. Granted, there were interludes that were v e r y slow but most of it felt snappy to me. It made me contemplate the French Revolution in a way that I think I failed to when studying it in college. The horror of the reality of it is really hard to contemplate. And its relative recentness is also sobering. Also, France's recovery is pretty amazing to think about.Even though it was certainly very heavy, I am sad that it is over - and I am so glad I finally read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An actual thriller. Loved it and cried.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Historical Fiction set during the Terror of the French Revolution by Charles Dickens; although starting at a slow pace, and sometimes exhibiting a confusing change of time and setting, by the time you reach Book III it really takes off and beats out any modern Hollywood action drama film by far. Aside from having perhaps two of the most well known literary quotations at the beginning and end of the book, it is a classic in how it deals with the nature of human perseverance during the darkness of times, the nature of sacrifice, and fickleness of the mob versus the solidity of individual principle. A book more relevant for our time than I'd like. A must read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic book drama. What an wonderful story of treason, romance, and danger.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of my all-time favourites, because of Dicken's political and social insight, and because of how the story ends with a man's ultimate sacrifice for the sake of love.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Too longwinded. Gave up.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A historical fiction novel from Dickens which follows a group of characters in London and Paris at the start of the French Revolution. The story follows a group of characters including an ex-prisoner of the Bastille who is dealing with the after effects of his imprisonment; a French nobleman who is trying to break free of his high social status and a pair of revolutionaries (one of whom knits constantly). There is an interesting mix of characters and the street riots along with the storming of the Bastille were exceptional. The juxtaposition of the two cities is reflected in the characters, and the heartless and brutal nature of the revolution is reflected in the story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The annual read, after the annual viewing of the film on Thanksgiving Day (Ronald Colman version, only, thank you). It has to be the mark of brilliance that even after a dozen readings, each time you harbor a secret hope that maybe THIS year he won't (spoiler alert...) get his head cut off. No better opening and closing lines in literature.