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This 60-second overview is brought to you by the number
2!
As in: A Tale of Two Cities
Which is a story about Dickens' two views of the French Revolution.
Stay TWOned.
Charles Dickens wanted to write a book about the French Revolution. But he also needed,
you know, a storyline. So don't be surprised if this novel initially feels like two different
stories. There's the story of Doctor Manette and his daughter Lucie. And then there's a
fictionalized history of the oppressed French peasants, whose hunger for food (and freedom!)
drove them to violently overthrow the terrible French aristocrats.
Even this book's themes don't seem connected at first. Off in imaginative storyteller land,
Dickens focuses on the theme of resurrection and transformation. Meanwhile, over in fictionalized
history land, Dickens examines the reasons for the Revolution—reasons he supports,
even as he condemns the revolutionaries' tactics.
In the end, though, the genius of Dickens is that his twos are actually one. Not only
do his storylines merge, but so do his themes. Because what A Tale of Two Cities is really
about is the need for a revolution—a transformation—in every man's heart. And though Dickens acknowledges
that in the real world, sometimes this revolution happens through violence, in the world of
Dickens, that same revolution is effected through love.