From AudioFile
It was the best of books and possibly the best of recorded versions. Dickens's dramatic narrative of the French Revolution and the unremitting vengeance of both Mesdames Defarge and La Guillotine are brought to life by Gordon Griffin's fully voiced reading. His reading is not as rushed as some, but is equally dramatic with flawless enunciation and a broad tonal range. What's more, each thirty-five minute side of the twelve tapes has a certain narrative completeness, ending with about thirty seconds of period harpsichord music. Classroom teachers might find these tapes useful for introducing the book, dealing with difficult passages or simply encouraging reluctant readers. P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
Against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Dickens unfolds a masterpiece of drama, adventure and courage featuring Charles Darnay, a man falsely accused of treason. He bears an uncanny resemblance to the dissolute, yet noble Sydney Carton— a coincidence that saves Darnay from certain doom more than once. Brilliantly plotted, the novel culminates in a daring prison escape in the shadow of the guillotine.



Download Description
Dicken's classic novel of The French Revolution. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…"


The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Charles Dickens, published both serially and in book form in 1859. The story is set in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution. Although Dickens borrowed from Thomas Carlyle's history, The French Revolution, for his sprawling tale of London and revolutionary Paris, the novel offers more drama than accuracy. The scenes of large-scale mob violence are especially vivid, if superficial in historical understanding. The complex plot involves Sydney Carton's sacrifice of his own life on behalf of his friends Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette. While political events drive the story, Dickens takes a decidedly antipolitical tone, lambasting both aristocratic tyranny and revolutionary excess--the latter memorably caricatured in Madame Defarge, who knits beside the guillotine. The book is perhaps best known for its opening lines, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," and for Carton's last speech, in which he says of his replacing Darnay in a prison cell, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."


Card catalog description
Relates the adventures of a young Englishman who gives his life during the French Revolution to save the husband of the woman he loves. Illustrated with drawings and maps depicting the period.


From the Publisher
9 1.5-hour cassettes

FROM OUR EDITORS

The human story behind the French Revolution is embodied in four of Dickens's greatest characters: Madame Defarge, Lucie Manette and her husband Charles Darnay, and the misanthrope Sydney Carton whose final sacrifice gives meaning to his life.

ANNOTATION

This novel provides a highly-charged examination of human suffering and human sacrifice. Private experience and public history, during the French Revolution.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When the starving French masses rise in hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent government, both the guilty and innocent become victims of their frenzied anger. Soon nothing stands in the way of the chilling figure they enlist for their cause—La Guillotine—the new invention for efficiently chopping off heads.

Charles Dickens' compelling portrait of the results of terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice continues to captivate readers around the world. With Frank Muller's brilliant performance, unforgettable characters—the ever-knitting Madame Defarge, the lovely Lucie Manette, her broken father, the honorable Charles Darnay, and the sometimes scurrilous Sydney Carton—burst from the pages, full of life and passion.

SYNOPSIS