The Proud Tale of England During his time, Charles Dickens was concerned that social problems in England, particularly those relating to the condition of the poor, might provoke a mass reaction on the scale of the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities opens in 1775, with a comparison of England and pre-revolutionary France. While drawing parallels between the two countries, Dickens also alludes to his own time: "the period was so far like the present …showed first 75 words of 2063 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2063 total…wo Cities. The Oxford Illustrated Dickens. 1949. Gross, John. "A Tale of Two Cities." Dickens and the Twentieth Century. Ed. John Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987. Hobsbawm, E. J. Echoes of the Marseillaise: Two Centuries Look Back on the French Revolution. London: Verso, 1990. Lodge, David. "The French Revolution and the Condition of England: Crowds and Power in the Early Victorian Novel." The French Revolution and British Culture. Ed. Ceri Crossley and Ian Small. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989. 123-40.