A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens; it is moreover a moral novel strongly concerned with themes of guilt, shame and retribution. Dickens' primary source for this historical novel is Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. The narrative is extraordinarily dependent upon correspondence as a medium for ensuring the flow of events, and while not an epistolary novel in the way that Pierre Choderlos de la Clos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, nevertheless, it is immediately apparent that the flow of letters forms a driving center to much of the narrative development in this novel. The novel covers a period in history between 1775 and 1793, from the American Revolution until the middle period of the French Revolution.

Film and television adaptations

A Tale of Two Cities has been filmed at least 13 times for film and television. Notable productions:

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• A Tale of Two Cities (1935 film) (1935), an MGM production starring Ronald Colman
• A Tale of Two Cities (1958 film) (1958), with Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin directed by Ralph Thomas
• A Tale of Two Cities (1980), a Hallmark Hall of Fame Production for CBS, starring Chris Sarandon