A Tale of Two Cities Introduction by Simon Schama

by Dickens, Charles; Schama, Simon

• ISBN13: 9780679420736
• ISBN10: 0679420738
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-02-23
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

Introduction by Simon Schama

Author Biography

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, where his father was a naval pay clerk. When he was five the family moved to Chatham, near Rochester, another port town. He received some education at a small private school but this was curtailed when his father's fortunes declined. More significant was his childhood reading, which he evoked in a memory of his father's library: 'From that blessed little room, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas and Robinson Crusoe came out, a glorious host, to keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that place and time.'<br> <br>When Dickens was ten the family moved to Camden Town, and this proved the beginning of a long, difficult period. (He wrote later of his

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
A Dickens Chronology	p. xxxiv
A Timeline	p. xxxviii
Further Reading	p. xli
A Note on the Text	p. xlviii
A Tale of two Cities	p. 1
On the Illustrations	p. 391
Dedication and Preface to First Volume Edition	p. 397
Dickens and His Sources	p. 399
Running Titles Added in 1867-8	p. 444
Notes	p. 448
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