When millions suffer under iron-fisted oppression, when anger and resentment boil into bloody insurrection, when triumph leads to savage vengeance — does one individual life matter? In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens interweaves the intensely personal dramas of Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution. The result is a powerful story of love, sacrifice, and redemption amid horrific violence and world-changing events.

Lucie struggles desperately to restore the health of a father driven mad by years of unjust imprisonment. Darnay, a passionate young idealist, must overcome his family's evil past. The cynical, alcoholic barrister, Carton, finally finds someone worthy of love and devotion—but will his affections be returned? When Darnay braves the Reign of Terror to save a faithful servant from the guillotine, Lucie and her father rush to protect him, and Carton's newfound feelings of love are put to the ultimate test.

Flavored with such unforgettable characters as the Marquis St. Evrémonde, who sings the praises of repression after his coach has struck and killed a peasant child, and Madame Defarge, who attends calmly to her knitting as heads roll, A Tale of Two Cities is a novel of stark contrasts, bitter ironies, and, ultimately, great hope.