| A Tale of Two Cities Contributor(s): Dickens, Charles (Author), Prebble, Simon (Read by) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1455108685 ISBN-13: 9781455108688 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks OUR PRICE: $31.46 Product Type: Compact Disc - Other Formats Published: April 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 1.4" H x 5.2" W x 5.7" (0.70 lbs) 12 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is a sprawling tale of London and revolutionary Paris with a complex plot portraying the results of terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."--opening line of A Tale of Two Cities It was the time of the French Revolution, a time of great change and great danger. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. Against this tumultuous historical backdrop, Dickens' dramatic story of adventure and courage unfolds. Unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette is reunited with his daughter, the gentle Lucie Manette, and safely transported from France to England. It would seem that they could now take up the threads of their lives in peace. As fate would have it, however, the two are summoned to the Old Bailey to testify against a young Frenchman, Charles Darnay, 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, as the two men's fates become intertwined with that of the Revolution. And there is Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary who has an implacable grudge against the aristocratic Evremonde dynasty and who knits as she watches the beheadings. The storming of the Bastille, the death carts with their doomed human cargo, the swift drop of the blade of La Guillotine--this is the French Revolution that Charles Dickens vividly captures. Brilliantly plotted, the novel is rich in drama, romance, and heroics that culminate in a daring prison escape in the shadow of the guillotine. |
Contributor Bio(s): Dickens, Charles: - Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England, the second of eight children in a family continually plagued by debt. A legacy brought release from the nightmare of debtors' prison and child labor and afforded him a few years of formal schooling. He worked as an attorney's clerk and newspaper reporter until his early writings brought him the amazing success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. He was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era, and he remains popular, responsible for some of English literature's most iconic characters. Prebble, Simon: -Simon Prebble, a British-born performer, is a stage and television actor and veteran narrator of some three hundred audiobooks. As one of AudioFile's Golden Voices, he has received over twenty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie in 2010. He lives in New York. |