A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens.

Its story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

The novel tells the story of: .the French Doctor Manette; .his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris; .his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met; .Lucie's marriage and the collision between her beloved husband and the people who caused her father's imprisonment; and Monsieur and Madame Defarge, sellers of wine in a poor suburb of Paris; With this book, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and a societal level.

Although the novel describes the atrocities committed both by the aristocracy and by the outraged peasants, it ultimately expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society.