A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most successful, if not the most successful, historical novels ever written. One of Charles Dickens's shortest works, it does not waste a word in telling a humanly touching, suspenseful tale against the background of one of the most bizarre and bloody events in history: the French Revolution of 1789 and its aftermath, culminating in the Terror of 1793-94.

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A Tale of Two Cities does not waste a word in telling a humanly touching, suspenseful tale against the background of the French Revolution. This collection of historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary will promote interdisciplinary study of the novel and enrich the student's understanding of the French Revolution and the significant issues it raised. Newlin has assembled a rich variety of materials. These include excerpts from Thomas Carlyle's work, The French Revolution (along with a discussion of Dickens's debt to that work), primary documents on "mob" behavior, the Fall of the Bastille, due process of law, capita/punishment and the development of the guillotine, prison isolation,human dissection and grave robbing. A detailed chronology of the French Revolution, interwoven with fictional events from A Tale of Two Cities, and sketches of major political, military, and financial figures of the Revolution, will help the student to place the novel in historical context.

Introduction

1. A Literary Analysis of A Tale of Two Cities

2. Before the Deluge

 FROM:

 Arthur Young, Travels in France during the Years

 1787, 1788, 1789 (1790)

3. The Events of the French Revolution

 Chronology

 Principal Figures

 ADAPTED FROM:

 "Philo" Summarizes The French Revolution (1857)

 by Thomas Carlyle

4. Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution

 FROM:

 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution (1837)

5. Dickens and Carlyle: Common Threads

  FROM:

  Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution (1837)

6. The Mob in Two Cities and the Terror

  FROM:

  Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841)

  Helen Maria Williams, Letters on the French

  Revolution, Written in France, in the Summer of

  1790, to a Friend in England (1792)

  Anthony Trollope, La Vendee (1850)

7. Voices from the Prisons of Paris in the Terror

  FROM:

  Olivier Blanc, Last Letters: Prisons and Prisoners of

  the French Revolution, 1793-1794

  Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution (1837)

  Olivier Blanc, Last Letters: Prisons and Prisoners of

  the French Revolution, 1793-1794

  Marie-Jeanne Roland, Memoirs (1794)

8. Revolution: When, What, and How

9. Due Process of Law: The Rights of Man

  FROM:

  Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1790)

  Helen Maria Williams, Letters on the French

  Revolution, Written in France, in the Summer of

  1790, to a Friend in England (1792)

  Arthur Young, Travels in France during the Years

  1787, 1788, 1789 (1790)

10. Capital Punishment: Usually Cruel Before

  the Guillotine

11. Prison Isolation and Its Consequences

  FROM:

  Charles Dickens, American Notes (1842)

12. Human Dissection and the "Resurrection Man"

Glossary

Bibliography

Index