A Tale of Two Cities

«A Tale of Two Cities» is the most popular novel by Charles Dickens and an undeniable bestseller in English-speaking countries with a circulation of over 200 million copies, having been adapted for the screen multiple times. The novel is structured according to the winning formula of a historical novel, but it is not a chronicle; it is a story about friendship, love, and hatred, about elevated and base human feelings. The revolutionary bloody Paris and the outwardly calm London, relentless hatred and devoted love, «days of faith and days of disbelief», «the time of light and the time of darkness», the upper class and the very «bottom» of society – a tragic collision of different worlds. At the center of the narrative is Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who renounces his inheritance for the sake of justice, and Sydney Carton, an Englishman whose outward carelessness conceals nobility and strength of spirit. Their fates intertwine through love for one woman - Lucie Manette, the daughter of a former Bastille prisoner.