<Tr> <Th> Preceded by </Th> <Td> Little Dorrit (1855--1857) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> Great Expectations (1860--1861) </Td> </Tr> <P> A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution . The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18 - year - long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to life in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met; Lucie's marriage and the collision between her beloved husband and the people who caused her father's imprisonment; and Monsieur and Madame Defarge, sellers of wine in a poor suburb of Paris . The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror . </P> <P> Dickens's famous opening sentence introduces the universal approach of the book, the French Revolution, and the drama depicted within: </P>

What is the novel a tale of two cities about
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