"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . ." Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities with this famous sentence. It describes the spirit of the era in which this novel takes place. This era is the latter part of the 1700s - a time when relations between Britain and France were strained, America declared its independence, and the peasants …showed first 75 words of 758 total…

…showed last 75 words of 758 total…introduced in this section. Resurrection is the literal action of bringing the dead back to life. However, Dickens uses it metaphorically. Lorry likens his mission to digging up a man who has been buried for eighteen years, in short, "recalling him to life." Resurrection in this novel appears as many things: a second chance at life, an escape of a death sentence, release from imprisonment, the digging up of graves, and memories of the dead.