A Tale of Two Cities

"And of the story itself? In some ways a dark one, filled with images of horror and destruction, of dirt and disease, of imprisonment and violent death... This is a world of enormous shadows, of the setting sun, of night; the only illumination occurs in the glare of the French Revolution itself, as if the only alternative to the darkness of despair lies in the rage and destructiveness of that event."

From Dickens by Peter Ackroyd