''It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times.'' It was the French Revolution. Unjustly imprisoned
for years in the Bastille, Dr. Manette is reunited with his
daughter, Lucie, and safely transported from France to England
where they hope to return to their quiet lives. However, they are
summoned to the Old Bailey in the trial of Charles Darnay, a young
Frenchman falsely accused of treason. Strangely enough, Darnay
bears an uncanny resemblance to another man in the courtroom:
Sydney Carton, a dissolute barrister. It is a coincidence that
saves Darnay from certain doom more than once. The storming of the
Bastille, the death carts with their doomed human cargo, and Madame
Defarge, who knits beside the guillotine, are portrayed with drama,
romance, and heroics that culminate in a daring prison escape in
the shadow of the guillotine. A sprawling tale of London and
revolutionary Paris with a complex plot portraying the results of
terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice.
