This novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralised by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period.

It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events.

The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.

Darnay is a former French aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife.A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.