The first Dickens book I've read in a long time, aside from my in-depth, tear-apart-and-lose-all-enjoyment-therefore-culminating-in-another-go-in-many-years read of Hard Times for University, and I was excited to read it, purely because, having seen the ITV adaptation on telly a while ago, I could re-enact the Sydney Carton senarios using the face of the delectable Dirk Bogarde. (FYI Dirk Bogarde versus Richard Attenborough in a black-and-white bout of fisticuffs would only cause me to faint like a Eighteenth Century dandy witnessing the revealing of a piano's ankles.) 
 Though set in the late-Eighteenth Century surrounding the Reign of Terror that was the French Revolution, Dickens has still encapsulated everything that matters to those less fortunate than others (in this scenario it's French peasants). There is an interesting love triangle, though not at the forefront of the plot to begin with, makes it mark toward the end, with a scoop of suitors to boot, along with a collective of amusing old men and fiesty women. Very Dickens.