书名：A Tale of Two Cities双城记

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数790L 

作者：Charles Dickens 

出版社名称：Puffin Classics 

出版时间：2009 

语种：英文 

ISBN：9780141325545 

商品尺寸：13 x 3.2 x 17.9 cm 

包装：平装 

页数：446

A Tale of Two Cities《双城记》是狄更斯重要的代表作之一，在他的全部创作中占据着特殊的地位，同他的其他作品相比，它更能反映出作者的创作思想和艺术风貌，在某种意义上说，这部作品富有狄更斯的特色，作者身上的戏剧气质在这部作品中表现得尤为突出。狄更斯曾说，这部小说使他“深受感动，无比激奋”，并且渴望能亲自在舞台上扮演西德尼·卡顿。 本书为Puffin Classics推出的英文版，由Roddy Doyle作序，内容有删节。 Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton are alike in appearance, different in character and in love with the same woman. In the midst of the French Revolution, Darnay, who has fled to London to escape the cruelty of the French nobility, must return to Paris to rescue his servant from death. But he endangers his own life and is captured. Carton may be able to help, but will his resemblance be enough to save Darnay’s life? With a witty introduction by bestselling author, Roddy Doyle.

A Tale of Two Cities《双城记》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯所著的一部以法国大革命为背景所写成的长篇历史小说，首次出版于1859年。故事中将巴黎、伦敦两个大城市连结起来，围绕着曼马内特医生一家和以德发日夫妇为首的圣安东尼区展开故事。小说里描写了贵族如何败坏、如何残害百姓，人民心中积压对贵族的刻骨仇恨，导致了不可避免的法国大革命。书名中的“双城”指的是巴黎与伦敦。 Charles Darnay and his former servant Sydney Carton may look alike but their personalities are very different. One day, in the midst of the French Revolution, Charles flees to London to escape the trouble in France. But when he learns that Sydney is facing death he returns to Paris to save him. When Charles’s own life is endangered on the way back, Sydney may be the only one able to save him from the guillotine… But will he?

查尔斯·狄更斯，1812年生于英国的朴次茅斯，是19世纪英国有名的批判现实主义小说家之一，也是公认的世界文学史上享有重要地位的杰出作家。狄更斯擅长描写底层小人物的生活遭遇，他的小说全景式地展现了当时英国的社会风貌，深刻揭露了当时的社会现实，为英国批判现实主义文学的开拓和发展做出了卓越的贡献。他的主要作品有《大卫·科波菲尔》《匹克威克外传》《雾都孤儿》《双城记》《老古玩店》《艰难时世》等。 Charles Dickens (1812-70) is one of the most recognized celebrities of English literature. His many books include OliverTwist, GreatExpectations and A Christmas Carol.

The Period 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 spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. There were a king with a large jaw, and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw, and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. France rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to comedown and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses old some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. In England, Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers’ warehouses for security;