A Tale of Two Cities
Complete textAfter years of imprisonment, Doctor Manette is reunited with his daughter Lucie. Their lives in London become linked with Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, while grievances in France gather into a revolution that threatens to reclaim people who believed they had escaped the past.
Continue readingAbout A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens builds the novel around echoes: paired cities, resembling faces, recurring phrases, and private histories returning as public danger. Domestic tenderness sits beside collective rage rather than cancelling it. The suspense rewards attention to apparently incidental objects and conversations whose significance changes as the revolutionary machinery begins to move.
Reading focus
Follow interlocking lives across London and Paris as private loyalty meets the violence of historical reckoning.
This reading edition contains 136,055 words in 45 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Charles Dickens. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Contents
All sections- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER I. The Period5 min
- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER II. The Mail10 min
- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER III. The Night Shadows8 min
- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER IV. The Preparation21 min
- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER V. The Wine-shop19 min
- Book the First—Recalled to Life — CHAPTER VI. The Shoemaker19 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER I. Five Years Later11 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER II. A Sight11 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER III. A Disappointment23 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER IV. Congratulatory11 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER V. The Jackal10 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER VI. Hundreds of People21 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER VII. Monseigneur in Town16 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER VIII. Monseigneur in the Country9 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER IX. The Gorgon’s Head19 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER X. Two Promises14 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XI. A Companion Picture7 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XII. The Fellow of Delicacy12 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy9 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XIV. The Honest Tradesman18 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XV. Knitting20 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XVI. Still Knitting18 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XVII. One Night9 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XVIII. Nine Days11 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XIX. An Opinion13 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XX. A Plea7 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XXI. Echoing Footsteps20 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XXII. The Sea Still Rises10 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XXIII. Fire Rises12 min
- Book the Second—the Golden Thread — CHAPTER XXIV. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock21 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER I. In Secret20 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER II. The Grindstone12 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER III. The Shadow8 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER IV. Calm in Storm10 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER V. The Wood-Sawyer11 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER VI. Triumph12 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER VII. A Knock at the Door9 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER VIII. A Hand at Cards22 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER IX. The Game Made22 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER X. The Substance of the Shadow27 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER XI. Dusk7 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER XII. Darkness15 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER XIII. Fifty-two21 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER XIV. The Knitting Done22 min
- Book the Third—the Track of a Storm — CHAPTER XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever11 min
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Is this the complete A Tale of Two Cities?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 45 sections and 136,055 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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