Impassive French women knitting beside the guillotine.The demonic roars of the crowd as the executioner holds asevered head in the air. The streets running with wine... and, later, blood. These are the pictures most people in the English-speaking world call to mind when asked about the French Revolution--pictures crafted by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), without a doubt the most influential novel ever  written about the French Revolution. In fact, with the exception of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, there is probably no other novel written in English that has so completely crystallized a historical period in the mind of the public.

  Impassive French women knitting beside the guillotine.The demonic roars of the crowd as the executioner holds asevered head in the air. The streets running with wine... and, later, blood. These are the pictures most people in the English-speaking world call to mind when asked about the French Revolution--pictures crafted by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), without a doubt the most influential novel ever  written about the French Revolution. In fact, with the exception of Margaret Mitchell"s Gone With the Wind, there is probably no other novel written in English that has so completely crystallized a historical period in the mind of the public.

 INTRODUCTION

 CHRONOLOGY OF CHARLES DICKENS"S LIFE

 AND WORK

 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF A Tale of

  Two Cities

PREFACE

Book the First

RECALLED TO LIFE

1.  THE PERIOD

2.  THE MAIL"

3.  THE NIGHT SHADOWS

4.  THE PREPARATION

5.  THE WINE-SHOP

6.  THE SHOEMAKER

   Book the Second

 THE GOLDEN THREAD

 1.  FIVE YEARS LATER

 2.  A SIGHT

 3.  A DISAPPOINTMENT

 4.  CONGRATULATORY

 5.  THE JACKAL

 6.  HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE

 7.  MONSEIGNEUR IN TOWN

 8.  MONSEIGNEUR IN THE COUNTRY

 9.  THE GORGON"S HEAD

 10.  Two PROMISES

 11.  A COMPANION PICTURE

 12.  THE FELLOW OF DELICACY

 13.  THE FELLOW OF No DELICACY

 14.  THE HONEST TRADESMAN

 15.  KNITTING

 16.  STILL KNITTING

 17.  ONE NIGHT

 18.  NINE DAYS

 19.  AN OPINION

 20.  A PLEA

 21.  ECHOING FOOTSTEPS

 22.  THE SEA STILL RISES

 23.  FIRE RISES   "

 24.  DRAWN TO THE LOADSTONE ROCK

    Book the Third

   THE TRACK OF A STORM

1.  IN SECRET

2.  THE GRINDSTONE

3.  THE SHADOW

4.  CALM IN STORM

5.  THE WOOD-SAWYER

6.  TRIUMPH

7.  A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

8.  A HAND AT CARDS

9.  THE GAME MADE

10.  THE SUBSTANCE OF THE SHADOW

11.  DUSK

12. DARKNESS

13.  FIFTY-TWO

14. THE KNITTING DONE

15.  THE FOOTSTEPS DIE OUT FOR EVER

   NOTES

   INTERPRETIVE NOTES

   CRITICAL EXCERPTS

   QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

   SUGGESTIONS FOR THE INTERESTED READER