It is now almost a full century since A Tale of Two Cities was published, yet it still stands as one of the best of all the historical novels written during that time. New generations of readers have obtained their first understanding of the meaning of the French Revolution as a social cataclysm and a human drama from the pages of this novel.  They have participated in its blood-stirring events not by following the career of notable and spectacular personages, but by identifying themselves with Sydney Carton, the Defarges and the other obscure people who lived and died during the reign of terror.