"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair." Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens is set during the French Revolution. The intricate plot of the novel concerns Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life for his friends Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette. In England, the lives of Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a skilful but infamous English lawyer, gets entangled through their love for Lucie Manette. But from the calm of London, they are hauled to the ruthless and gory city of Paris at the time of the Reign of Terror, where they soon fall under the fatal shadow of the Guillotine.