Books / charles-dickens-a-tale-of-two-cities
Facts about Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
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Dickens dedicated A Tale of Two Cities to the actor and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a close friend who influenced the novel's ending.
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Sydney Carton's self-sacrificing final act in A Tale of Two Cities ends with one of literature's most celebrated closing lines about a far, far better thing.
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A Tale of Two Cities was first published as a weekly serial in Dickens' own literary magazine All the Year Round in 1859.
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The title of A Tale of Two Cities refers to London and Paris, the two cities central to the novel's plot.
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Set during the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities opens with the iconic line 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.