A Tale of Two Cities

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Martin Jarvis

Exclusively from Audible

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'; so the recording begins and ends with some of Dickens' best-known words, and between those lines is every Briton's view of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.

Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, the audiobook tells the story of a French doctor who is imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille in Paris. Upon his release, he moves to London with his daughter, Lucie, whom he had never met. She marries but there is conflict between her husband and the people who decades earlier caused her father's imprisonment.

Set against the backdrop of the conditions that led up to the French Revolution, it depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralised by the French aristocracy and the brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror, towards the former aristocrats.

Dickens was one of eight children from a very poor family, with his father eventually being sent to debtor's prison. Dickens began work at the age of 12 to help clear the family debt. It was this troublesome childhood that provided him with much of the material for his novels and lent him a sympathetic voice for the poor.

Narrator Biography

Martin Jarvis is one of Britain's most admired actors. His audiobook output is legendary. He is described in Vanity Fair as 'the Olivier of audiobooks' and 'genius of the Spoken Word' in the LA Times. Award-winning recordings range from titles by Charles Dickens, P.G. Wodehouse and Michael Frayn to thrillers by Jeffrey Archer, Wilbur Smith, Ian Fleming and Dick Francis.

He has starred in many acclaimed West End and National Theatre productions and received the Theatre World Award as Jeeves on Broadway. Numerous UK television appearances encompass Law & Order, Doctor Who, Endeavour, Inspector Morse and The Forsyte Saga. In America: Murder She Wrote, Numb3rs, Cosmos and Walker, Texas Ranger. Films include Titanic, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Wreck-It Ralph. Videogames: Alfred in Batman, Finn McMissile in Cars. Martin was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Enchanting, inspiring, exciting

One needs some patience to get used to Dickens' style in the early parts of this wonderful book, but listening to the audio helps make the story understandable. And like so many of life's treasures that require work before reward, this story pays off the patient reader in the end with emotional and intellectual paybacks that top all books I know of except possibly Les Miserables. My first attempst to read the book led nowhere, but finally I listened to the audio and read the book at the same time (more or less) and I got hooked into a book that I rank as one of the two best fiction works I have ever read (and I am a teacher of English with 30 years experience, and a bookworm too...) I have now read and listened to the book about ten times and I plan to revisit it again, at least every two years....it is too good to ignor.

What a joy!

Listening to Dickens with such wonderful narration by Martin Jarvis is a complete joy. I enjoyed it forty years ago and loved it again with this listening.

Fabulous

Probably the finest tragic romance written in the English language superbly rendered into the audio format. Six stars.

Martin Jarvis's delivery makes this the best audio version.

Martin Jarvis's delivery makes this the best audio version of Tale of Two Cities. With a work that's been so frequently reproduced the reader is the relevant variable and Jarvis is the best.

Great story!

A tale of two cities is really a very interesting story of fate and history.

Great classic...

I tried to listen to this on CD a few years ago, but I would find my attention wandering. I gave it another try, and I'm glad I did. The narrator is wonderful, and this is a book I will listen to again in the future.

Exceptional

Amazing book - it was intense, terrifying, while at the same time it was one of the most poignant books I have ever read. And in the end it was uplifting. Many times, the classics are not really classic but rather they are just books that were written long ago. This one truly is classic. The narration by Martin Jarvis is wonderful. The pitiful situations that the characters all endure is terribly sad and gives some insight into the actions they all take at the pivotal moment in the book. Dickens probably truly cared about humanity and the human situation.

I'll want to go back and read it

The story is great and the performance is excellent. If you want to listen to A Tale of Two Cities, I'd recommend listening to this version. However, I had never read the book on paper, and now I think that I will. It's rather long and can be a bit convoluted. Not in a bad way at all, just that I would have liked to have been able to go back a few pages or chapters and refreshed myself on who a character was or what event the narrator was referencing. Of course, this is a trade-off for any audiobook. I just think AToTC is just worth going back over more than others sometimes are.

Truly and amazing story!!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Charles Dickens writes in an amazing way, and the story is just as amazing. The characters you are supposed to love you love a lot, and the characters you are supposed to hate couldn't be worse.
Martin Jarvis does an amazing job of bringing this story to life.
I just finished it and I can say that it's one of my favourite books. Ps. I cried at the end

Stick With It

It took me a while to finish this novel, and I actually listed to several other audio books before coming back to it. If you stick with it to the end you really do begin to care about what will happen to the characters.

The narration is excellent although sometimes a bit quick. Which can lead to wanting to replay certain sections for more clarity about what is actually happening.