#171 in Historical fiction
A Tale of Two Cities
- 372
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Film 1935 +8
- On screen
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Our view
Dickens writes the French Revolution with a lyricism that makes its horrors harder to look away from. He threads humour and careful foreshadowing through a plot that moves between London and Paris, and the ending draws every strand together. Some readers find the central couple paler than the people around them, and some need a good while to get through the book.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 9 times — from 1907 to 2026.
- FilmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- FilmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- Short filmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- FilmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- FilmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- TV filmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- SeriesA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
- FilmThe Only WayIMDb
- Short filmA Tale of Two CitiesIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 1,344 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 90% of the weight and the score stays at 7.4 — the Historical fiction average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 205 | 15% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 144 | 11% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 995 | 74% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Tale of Two Cities?
It has 372 pages — shorter than 66% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Historical fiction — with scores between 6.6 and 8.4, closest to this book.
