Book description
Lucie Manette has been separated from her father for eighteen years
while he languished in Paris's most feared prison, the Bastille. Finally
reunited, the Manettes' fortunes become inextricably intertwined with
those of two men, the heroic aristocrat Darnay and the dissolute lawyer
Carton. Their story, which encompasses violence, revenge, love and
redemption, is grippingly played out against the backdrop of the
terrifying brutality of the French Revolution. Charles Dickens was
born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in Portsmouth. His father was a
clerk in the Navy Pay Office who often ended up in financial trouble.
When Dickens was twelve years' old he was sent to work in a shoe polish
factory because his father had been imprisoned for debt. In 1833 he
began to publish short stories and essays in newspapers and magazines.
The Pickwick Papers
, his first commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year
that he married Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist
began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers
was still running. Many other novels followed and Dickens became a
celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up and edited the
journals Household Words
(1850-9) and All the Year Round (1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9
June 1870 leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
