A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
6 Rating(s)
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A Tale of Two Cities

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Ian Richardson

Abridged: 6 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 06/16/2005


Synopsis

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

About The Author

Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. When the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to school, after which he became an office boy, a freelance reporter, and finally an author. With Pickwick Papers (1836–37) he achieved immediate fame. In a few years he was easily the most popular and respected writer of his time. It has been estimated that one out of every ten persons in Victorian England was a Dickens reader. Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41) were huge successes. Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) was less so, but Dickens followed it with his unforgettable, A Christmas Carol (1843), Bleak House (1852–53), Hard Times (1854), and Little Dorrit (1855–57), which reveal his deepening concern for the injustices of British society. A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860–61), and Our Mutual Friend (1864–65) complete his major works.Ian Richardson (1934–2007) was a Scottish actor best known for his role on the BBC hit series House of Cards. He also provided narration for several C. S. Lewis novels. He died in 2007.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Melissa on May 29, 2009

My primary goal when I'm teaching A Tale of Two Cities to my sophomores is to make them realize that Charles Dickens didn't write creaky, dusty long novels that teachers embraced as a twisted rite of passage for teenagers. Instead, I want them them to understand why Dickens was one of the most popul......more

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on April 23, 2023

Never change a running plot system Although it might get used far too often Instead of trying out new plots and ideas, Dickens keeps focusing on his main premises, recycling himself a bit and especially losing control over the inner logic, coherency, and credibility, not ever to talk about suspension......more

Goodreads review by zuza_zaksiazkowane on April 13, 2023

Za głupia na to jestem......more

Goodreads review by Meghhnaa on November 11, 2022

Quick plot synopsis - Set against the backdrop of the famous French Revolution, it is a tale of the cities of London and Paris. Mr. Jarvis Lorry (confidential clerk at Tellson's Bank) is travelling to meet Lucie Manette (a ward of Tellson's Bank), to inform her that she isn’t an orphan. They travel......more


Quotes

“No writer of the age was more beloved than Dickens.” —Tina Jordan, The New York Times

“[A Tale of Two Cities] has the best of Dickens and the worst of Dickens: a dark, driven opening, and a celestial but melodramatic ending; a terrifyingly demonic villainess and (even by Dickens’ standards) an impossibly angelic heroine. Though its version of the French Revolution is brutally simplified, its engagement with the immense moral themes of rebirth and terror, justice, and sacrifice gets right to the heart of the matter…for every reader in the past hundred and forty years and for hundreds to come, it is an unforgettable ride.” —from the Everyman's Library introduction by Simon Schama