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book1859

A Tale of Two Cities

Disciplines:
fiction/historical fiction
literature/victorian novel

Summary

Charles Dickens's 1859 novel about the French Revolution, concluding with Sydney Carton's self-sacrifice.

Core Contribution

Provided Nolan with the sacrificial redemption arc and the revolutionary terror that frames The Dark Knight Rises.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Sydney Carton's sacrifice (the last act of a wasted life becomes its only meaningful act -- sacrifice retroactively justifying an existence)

Historical Influences

Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution Edmund Burke

Intellectual Lineage

Victorian fictionHistorical novel tradition

Allied Works

The Dark Knight Rises French Revolution: A History

Contemporaries & Peers

Great Expectations Les Miserables

Minds Influenced

The Dark Knight Rises

Intellectual Posterity

Self-sacrifice as redemption narrative

Discussing

A Tale of Two Cities

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