Charles Dickens' story of the French Revolution is a departure from his usual London-set novels, but it continues his passion for social justice and the problems of the poor.
It follows Doctor Manette, who is released after 18 years imprisonment in the Bastille as a political prisoner. He is reunited with his daughter Lucie in England - where two men fall in love with her: exiled French aristocrat Charles Darnay and English lawyer Sydney Carton. They are drawn back to Paris as the Revolution reaches its bloody zenith.
I wasn't one for classics at school, and I must admit I resisted picking this up for a long time, but from the famous opening line "I t was the best of times, it was the worst of times", I found this an exciting read. Dickens doesn't shy away from portraying the desperate poverty of the French peasants, and how this was stirred into violence and eventually carnage. But there is also heroism, love and fortitude, and the parallels with the violence of the 21st century, with many peoples throwing off their oppressors, is hard to avoid.
Sometimes it was a bit slow-going but the last 100 pages are terrifying and unputdownable.
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