Dickens Charles. A Tale of Two Cities

Masterful tale unfolded in the carnage, horror and idealism of the French Revolution. Political upheaval frames the story, but Dickens delights in indicting aristocratic tyranny and revolutionary excesses. A young Englishman, Sydney Carton, gets swept up in the chaos and ends by heroically sacrificing himself. For the love of a woman he can never have, he exchanges places with his friend and twin, Charles Darnay, sentenced to death on the guillotine and goes to a "far, far better place."