Cover art: Original Trilango illustration, 2026

A Tale of Two Cities

Name: A Tale of Two Cities
Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Estimated C11237 min · 126 parts · 646 words to learn

A prisoner is dug out of eighteen years in the Bastille. London and Paris pull him, and the people who love him, toward the revolution.

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About the book

Charles Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities in 1859, setting it in London and Paris in the years before and during the French Revolution. Doctor Manette is released after eighteen years in the Bastille and brought to England by his daughter Lucie. Around them gather Charles Darnay, a French émigré hiding his family name, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant lawyer who has given up on himself. In Paris, the Defarges keep a wine shop and keep count of every injustice.

Reading it as a learner

We estimate it at C1. Dickens opens with one of the most famous long sentences in English and keeps a formal, ironic style, with legal language in the trial scenes and a few French words. Some chapters are dramatic and quick; others build slowly. The 45 chapters are split into 126 ten-minute parts, and every chapter has word questions written for it. Tap a word to look it up whenever a sentence gets away from you.

Book 1 · Chapter 1
The Period
1. 1
Book 1 · Chapter 2
The Mail
1. 1
2. 2
Book 1 · Chapter 3
The Night Shadows
1. 1
2. 2
Book 1 · Chapter 4
The Preparation
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 1 · Chapter 5
The Wine-shop
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 1 · Chapter 6
The Shoemaker
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 1
Five Years Later
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 2
A Sight
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 3
A Disappointment
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 4
Congratulatory
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 5
The Jackal
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 6
Hundreds of People
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 7
Monseigneur in Town
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Book 2 · Chapter 8
Monseigneur in the Country
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 9
The Gorgon’s Head
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 10
Two Promises
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Book 2 · Chapter 11
A Companion Picture
1. 1
Book 2 · Chapter 12
The Fellow of Delicacy
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 13
The Fellow of No Delicacy
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 14
The Honest Tradesman
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 15
Knitting
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 16
Still Knitting
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 17
One Night
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 18
Nine Days
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 19
An Opinion
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Book 2 · Chapter 20
A Plea
1. 1
Book 2 · Chapter 21
Echoing Footsteps
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 2 · Chapter 22
The Sea Still Rises
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 23
Fire Rises
1. 1
2. 2
Book 2 · Chapter 24
Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 1
In Secret
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 2
The Grindstone
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 3
The Shadow
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 4
Calm in Storm
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 5
The Wood-Sawyer
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 6
Triumph
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 7
A Knock at the Door
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 8
A Hand at Cards
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 9
The Game Made
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 10
The Substance of the Shadow
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Book 3 · Chapter 11
Dusk
1. 1
2. 2
Book 3 · Chapter 12
Darkness
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Book 3 · Chapter 13
Fifty-two
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 14
The Knitting Done
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
Book 3 · Chapter 15
The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
1. 1
2. 2

About the book

Reading it as a learner

Contents