A Tale of Two CitiesˌTale of Two ˈCities, A (1859) a novel by Charles dickens, set in London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution. The start of the book is very well known: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...’. Another famous part is the thoughts of one of the main characters, Sydney Carton, when he is about to be killed by the guillotine instead of another man that he is pretending to be, so that the other man can live: ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done’.