It was the time of the French Revolution—a time of great change and great danger. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. Against this tumultuous historical backdrop, Dicken's great story of unsurpassed adventure and courage unfolds

Unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexander Manette is reunited with his daughter Lucie and safely transported from France to England. It would seem that they could now take up the threads of their lives in peace. As fate would have it though, the pair are summoned to the Old Bailey to testify against a young Frenchman—Charles Darney—falsely accused of treason. Strangely enough, Darney bears an uncanny resemblance to another man in the courtroom, the dissolute lawyers's clerk Sydney Carton. It is a coincidence that saves Darnay from certain doom more than once. Brilliantly plotted, the novel is rich in drama, romance, and heroics that culminate in a daring prison escape in the shadow of the guillotine.

Lexile Measure: HL460L

©1999. Charles Dickens. 293 pages, paperback, 5 by 8 inches, middle school/high school.