Paris running blood and writhing in the fierce fire of anarchy and
mob rule. A powerful book, unquestionably. No doubt there is in its
heat and glare a reflection from Carlyle's "French Revolution," a book
for which Dickens had the greatest admiration. But that need not be
regarded as a demerit. Dickens is no pale copyist, and adds fervour
to what he borrows. His pictures of Paris in revolution are as fine as
the London scenes in "Barnaby Rudge;" and the interweaving of the
story with public events is even better managed in the later book than
in the earlier story of the Gordon riots. And the story, what does it
tell? It tells of a certain Dr. Manette, who, after long years of
imprisonment in the Bastille, is restored to his daughter in London;
and of a young French noble, who has assumed the name of Darnay, and
left France in horror of the doings of his order, and who marries Dr.
Manette's daughter; and of a young English barrister, able enough in
his profession, but careless of personal success, and much addicted to
port wine, and bearing a striking personal resemblance to the young
French noble. These persons, and others, being drawn to Paris by
various strong inducements, Darnay is condemned to death as a
_ci-devant_ noble, and the ne'er-do-well barrister, out of the great
pure love he bears to Darnay's wife, succeeds in dying for him. That
is the tale's bare outline; and if any one says of the book that it is
in parts melodramatic, one may fitly answer that never was any portion
of the world's history such a thorough piece of melodrama as the
French Revolution.

With "The Tale of Two Cities" Hablot K. Browne's connection with
Dickens, as the illustrator of his books, came to an end. The
"Sketches" had been illustrated by Cruikshank, who was the great
popular illustrator of the time, and it is amusing to read, in the
preface to the first edition of the first series, published in 1836,
how the trembling young author placed himself, as it were, under the
protection of the "well-known individual who had frequently
contributed to the success of similar undertakings." Cruikshank also
illustrated "Oliver Twist;" and indeed, with an arrogance which
unfortunately is not incompatible with genius, afterwards set up a
rather preposterous claim to have been the real originator of that
book, declaring that he had worked out the story in a series of
etchings, and that Dickens had illustrated _him_, and not he
Dickens.[27] But ap