Reading Order
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens Novels Reading Order
Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is one of the best-selling novels of all time and among the most famous opening lines in English literature ('It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'). Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, it follows the lawyer Sydney Carton, the aristocrat Charles Darnay, and the seamstress Lucie Manette through the Terror, ending with one of the most celebrated acts of self-sacrifice in Victorian fiction.
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A Tale of Two Cities
Complete A Tale of Two Cities Book List
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A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens·1859·The novel — serialized in Dickens's own journal All the Year Round in 1859; shorter and more thriller-like than most Dickens, with less of the comic relief and digression that characterize the longer novels; the historical romance elements are more dominant than in any other Dickens work. - 2Buy
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens·1861·Dickens's most perfectly structured novel — the orphan Pip, his mysterious patron, and the eccentric Miss Havisham; written at the same time as A Tale of Two Cities and considered by many the finest of the mature novels; the Dickens novel most recommended to readers coming to him for the first time. - 3Buy
Bleak House
Charles Dickens·1853·Dickens's most ambitious novel — the interminable Jarndyce v Jarndyce lawsuit in Chancery, a group of characters whose fates are determined by it, and Dickens's most sustained critique of the legal system and English institutions; considered by many critics the greatest English novel of the 19th century. - 4Buy
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens·1850·Dickens's most autobiographical novel — the orphan David's progress from childhood poverty through various employments to literary success; Dickens called it his 'favourite child,' and it contains more of his own experience than any other work. - 5Buy
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo·1862·The French counterpart to A Tale of Two Cities — Hugo's massive social novel set against the backdrop of French history from Waterloo to the 1832 uprising; written at the same moment in the 1860s, it addresses the same questions about revolution, justice, and redemption from the French side of the Channel. - 6Buy
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Baroness Orczy·1905·The aristocratic English hero Sir Percy Blakeney who rescues condemned French aristocrats from the guillotine — the most direct adventure-fiction heir to A Tale of Two Cities, sharing its French Revolution setting and its portrait of heroism disguised as foppishness. - 7Buy
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall Trilogy
Hilary Mantel·2009·Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII shares A Tale of Two Cities' interest in how individuals survive (or don't) within the machinery of political violence; the finest contemporary British historical fiction and the work that most recalls Dickens in its combination of historical research with vivid character.
A Tale of Two Cities — Frequently Asked Questions
In what order should I read Charles Dickens?
For first-time readers, Great Expectations is the standard recommendation: it is the most perfectly structured of the major novels, the most immediately graspable, and a complete portrait of Dickens's thematic concerns in concentrated form. A Tale of Two Cities is also often recommended first for its relative brevity and thriller-like pacing. The standard reading sequence for the complete novels is roughly: Great Expectations → Oliver Twist or David Copperfield → Bleak House → Dombey and Son → Little Dorrit → Our Mutual Friend. The Christmas books (including A Christmas Carol) can be read at any point; Pickwick Papers is Dickens's first novel and best read early to appreciate his development; Edwin Drood is the unfinished final novel and only for completists.
Who is Sydney Carton and why is his sacrifice famous?
Sydney Carton is a dissolute English lawyer who has wasted his considerable intelligence on alcohol and drift, who falls in love with Lucie Manette, and who resembles the French aristocrat Charles Darnay closely enough to impersonate him. When Darnay is condemned to the guillotine by the Revolutionary tribunal, Carton smuggles him out of prison and takes his place, going to the guillotine himself while Darnay escapes to England with Lucie. Carton's final words — 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known' — are among the most famous in English fiction. The sacrifice is famous because Carton transforms himself, in the act of dying, from a wasted man into a heroic one, fulfilling his love for Lucie in the only way available to him.
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