A Tale of Two Cities Fun Facts: 12 Things You Didn't Know About Charles Dickens's Classic

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's 1859 novel about the French Revolution, set between London and Paris, and one of only two historical novels he ever wrote. In Season 2, Episode 9 of Book Trivia Podcast, Jess and Rach skip the literary analysis and go straight for the fun facts behind it.

Below you'll find the best A Tale of Two Cities fun facts we uncovered: why Dickens wrote it, the 200 million copies myth, and 12 things you didn't know about the book.: why Dickens wrote it, the 200 million copies myth, and 12 fun facts about the book. We also answer the most-searched Charles Dickens questions (how he died, what happened to his wife, and his pet raven, Grip) and round up every major adaptation, from a 1911 silent film to The Dark Knight Rises.

👉 Prefer to listen? We cover all of this (and more) in our full A Tale of Two Cities podcast episode.

TL;DR

• A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's 1859 novel about the French Revolution, set between London and Paris and first published in weekly instalments in his own magazine, All the Year Round.

• Its famous "200 million copies sold" figure has no traceable source, and nobody knows the real number.

• Dickens conceived the story in 1857 while starring in a play about self-sacrifice, the same summer he fell for 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan.

• Below: 12 fun facts about the book, the real answers to the most-searched Charles Dickens questions, and every major adaptation from 1911 to the 2026 Kit Harington series.

When was A Tale of Two Cities written?

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859, and it was serialised weekly from 30 April to 26 November that year. It ran across 31 instalments in his new magazine All the Year Round, and was published as a single volume the same year. Dickens first conceived the idea two years earlier, in the summer of 1857. He was 47 when it was published.

Why did Charles Dickens write A Tale of Two Cities?

Dickens got the idea for A Tale of Two Cities while acting in The Frozen Deep in 1857, a play by his friend Wilkie Collins. Dickens played Richard Wardour, a man who sacrifices his life so the woman he loves can be happy with his rival.

That plot became the backbone of the novel's ending. Dickens also drew heavily on Thomas Carlyle's history The French Revolution (1837) for the setting, tone and imagery.

There's a twist in the origin story, too. Playwright Watts Phillips opened The Dead Heart at London's Adelphi Theatre in late 1859, with the same French Revolution setting and a guillotine self-sacrifice climax, and it was Phillips who was accused of copying Dickens. It later emerged that Dickens had been in the room in Brighton in 1857 when Phillips's play was read aloud, the same summer he says he conceived his own story.

12 A Tale of Two Cities Fun Facts

1. The "200 million copies sold" figure is made up

A Tale of Two Cities is often called the best-selling novel of all time, at 200 million copies. The number has been repeated so widely that it appears almost everywhere, but no one has ever traced it back to real sales data.

The book has been in the public domain for over a century, printed in more than 1,500 editions, translated into around 50 languages, and handed out free as newspaper inserts. A reliable total simply can't exist.

2. It launched Dickens's own magazine

Dickens used his most anticipated novel to kick off his brand-new weekly periodical, All the Year Round. A Tale of Two Cities was the lead serial in the very first issue.

3. It came out weekly, not monthly

Almost every other Dickens novel was serialised in monthly parts. This one ran weekly, though Dickens also released it in eight monthly instalments with green covers for readers who preferred his usual format.

4. One critic called it "a dish of puppy pie and stewed cat"

Reviews were split. Thomas Carlyle loved it, but critic James Fitzjames Stephen dismissed it as "a dish of puppy pie and stewed cat," and novelist Margaret Oliphant said it had "little of Dickens" in it.

5. Sydney Carton was originally called "Dick Carton"

In Dickens's early notes, the hero was "Dick Carton," echoing Richard Wardour, the role Dickens played on stage. The initials DC are Dickens's own, reversed.

6. Charles Darnay shares Dickens's initials and first name

Charles Darnay's initials are CD, just like Charles Dickens. Many readers see Carton and Darnay as two halves of Dickens himself: one fascinating and self-destructive, one decent and dull.

7. Madame Defarge's knitting is a real code

Madame Defarge records the names of people marked for death in her knitting, stitch by stitch. Dickens moved in the same social circles as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, and some have speculated about a link, though there's no evidence Lovelace's work inspired the idea.

8. The opening line is one enormous sentence

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." keeps going for 119 words before it reaches a full stop. It has been riffed on by bands including Styx and referenced in The Simpsons and Star Trek II.

9. Book the Second is called "The Golden Thread"

In 1935, the landmark English legal case Woolmington v DPP used the exact phrase "golden thread" to describe the presumption of innocence. There's no evidence the judge, Viscount Sankey, was quoting Dickens, but the match is striking.

10. Dickens was a stage magician

From 1843 he performed magic shows for family and friends under the stage name "The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos." His signature trick turned a box of bran into a live guinea pig.

11. He nearly became an actor instead

Dickens landed a real audition at Covent Garden Theatre in his early twenties, then missed it because he had a bad cold. His writing career took off before he got another chance.

12. He survived a deadly train crash with his secret mistress

On 9 June 1865, Dickens was travelling with Ellen Ternan and her mother when their train derailed at Staplehurst in Kent, killing 10 passengers. He spent hours helping the injured, then avoided the inquest so no one would learn Ternan had been with him.

Charles Dickens Facts: The Most-Searched Questions

Why did Charles Dickens' father go to prison?

Charles Dickens's father, John, was sent to Marshalsea debtors' prison in February 1824 for owing a baker, James Kerr, £40 and 10 shillings (roughly £3,800 today). His wife and three youngest children moved in with him, which was standard practice at the time.

Twelve-year-old Charles was sent to board with family friends and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, pasting labels on pots of boot polish for six shillings a week. He kept the episode secret for the rest of his life; it only became public in John Forster's biography, published after Dickens died.

What happened to Charles Dickens' wife?

Charles Dickens separated from his wife, Catherine Hogarth, in 1858 after 22 years of marriage and ten children. He had fallen for 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan the year before, while performing in The Frozen Deep.

Dickens publicly claimed Catherine didn't love their children and tried to have her institutionalised. They never divorced: they signed a private deed of separation that gave Catherine £600 a year, and she never saw him again.

Did Charles Dickens have a pet raven?

Yes, Charles Dickens kept a pet raven called Grip, which he wrote into his 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge as the title character's talking bird. Grip is widely credited as an inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven, after Poe reviewed Barnaby Rudge.

The real Grip died in 1841, probably after eating paint. Dickens had him stuffed, and the taxidermied Grip is now held by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

How did Charles Dickens die?

Charles Dickens died of a stroke on 9 June 1870, aged 58, at his home, Gad's Hill Place in Kent. He had spent the previous day writing his final, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

He died exactly five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash. His last words, when his sister-in-law Georgina asked him to lie down, were reportedly "On the ground."

Where is Charles Dickens buried?

Charles Dickens is buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, alongside Geoffrey Chaucer and other literary greats. His will had asked for a private, inexpensive burial in Kent or at Rochester Cathedral.

The funeral itself was kept private, with just 12 mourners. Public demand was so great that the grave was left open for three days afterwards, and thousands of people filed past to throw in flowers.

A Tale of Two Cities Adaptations: Films, Musicals and The Dark Knight Rises

Adaptation	Year	Format	Notable detail
Vitagraph silent film	1911	Film	Released in three parts across one week, mirroring the novel's serialisation
MGM film	1935	Film	Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture
The Mercury Theatre on the Air	1938	Radio	Orson Welles played Sydney Carton, the same year as his War of the Worlds broadcast
A Tale of Two Cities	2008	Broadway musical	Later staged in Germany, Japan and South Korea
The Dark Knight Rises	2012	Film	Christopher Nolan cited the novel as an influence, and Commissioner Gordon reads its closing lines at Batman's funeral
BBC One / MGM+ series	2026	TV (4 episodes)	Kit Harington as Sydney Carton, François Civil as Charles Darnay and Mirren Mack as Lucie Manette

The Dark Knight Rises is the adaptation most people don't realise they've seen. Beyond Gordon's eulogy, Bane can be spotted knitting during the film, which fans widely read as a nod to Madame Defarge.

Conclusion

A Tale of Two Cities was born from a play, a love affair and a borrowed plot, then turned into a sales legend nobody can actually prove. More than 165 years later, it's still being adapted, most recently with Kit Harington stepping into Sydney Carton's shoes.

👉 Think you know it now? Test yourself with our A Tale of Two Cities trivia questions, or get the full story in our A Tale of Two Cities podcast episode.

FAQ

Is A Tale of Two Cities a true story?

No. A Tale of Two Cities is fiction, but it's set against real events from the French Revolution, including the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Reign of Terror. Dickens drew heavily on Thomas Carlyle's history The French Revolution, and several characters were shaped by people and experiences from his own life.

Is A Tale of Two Cities historically accurate?

Broadly, yes, in its big events and atmosphere, but it isn't a history book. Dickens relied on Thomas Carlyle's dramatic, opinionated account of the Revolution, so the novel leans into mob violence and aristocratic cruelty. The main characters and their story are invented, set against real events like the Bastille and the Terror.

How many copies has A Tale of Two Cities sold?

Nobody knows. The widely quoted 200 million figure has no traceable source in real sales data. Because the book has been public domain for over a century, printed in 1,500+ editions, translated into around 50 languages and given away free in newspapers, no reliable total can exist.

Is Les Misérables based on A Tale of Two Cities?

No. Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (1862) is a separate novel written three years later, and its barricade climax is set during the June Rebellion of 1832, not the French Revolution of 1789. The two are often confused because both are long nineteenth-century classics set in revolutionary Paris.

Is there a new A Tale of Two Cities adaptation?

Yes. A four-part A Tale of Two Cities series premiered in 2026 on BBC One in the UK and MGM+ in the US. Written by Daniel West, it stars Kit Harington as Sydney Carton, François Civil as Charles Darnay and Mirren Mack as Lucie Manette.