A Tale of Two Cities Book Quiz
Eight multiple-choice questions on Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859) — plot, characters and the moments everyone quotes. Two minutes, instant score, every answer explained below. For the full mixed-classics version, take the original book quiz — 15 questions across the whole canon.
All 8 questions and answers
Prefer to read the quiz instead of taking it? Expand for every question, answer and a one-line explanation.
- How does the novel open? — It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The most quoted opening sentence in English fiction — 1775, both cities, everything doubled.
- What is Dr Manette's condition when Lucie finds him in Paris? — He makes shoes obsessively, not knowing his own name. Recalled to life after eighteen years in the Bastille — '105 North Tower.'
- What does the wine cask spilling in Saint Antoine foreshadow? — The blood of the coming Revolution. The street kneels in the red wine; someone scrawls BLOOD on a wall.
- Who are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton? — Two men who look alike; one marries Lucie, one dies for her. Darnay, the exiled aristocrat; Carton, the dissolute lawyer who claims to care for nothing.
- Why is Darnay arrested and tried in London early in the book? — The resemblance to Carton makes the witness identification collapse. Carton's look-alike face saves Darnay at the Old Bailey — the plot's loaded gun.
- What does Madame Defarge knit? — The names of those the Revolution will kill. Her knitting is the register: everyone marked in it is condemned.
- Why does Darnay return to Paris and get arrested? — To save his old servant Gabelle from the Revolution. The old promise to Gabelle drags him back into the teeth of the Terror.
- What are the novel's last words? — It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. Carton takes Darnay's place at the guillotine — the trade that gives his life meaning.
About A Tale of Two Cities
London and Paris in the years of revolution: Dr Manette released from the Bastille, his daughter Lucie loved by two men who look alike, and the guillotine working through the names on Madame Defarge's knitting. The novel with the most famous opening and closing lines in English. The novel runs about 136,000 words (roughly 489 pages in a standard paperback) — about 9 hours and 31 minutes of reading at an average pace. Before you commit, see the full breakdown in how long it takes to read A Tale of Two Cities or calculate reading time for any other book.
Moderate — Victorian sentences, but the plot drives; the last third is a runaway. If you get 6 or more of the eight questions right, the book clearly stuck.
What this quiz covers
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities sits in our victorian london shelf, and the eight questions follow the book the way a reader experiences it: how the story opens, the turn in the middle, the characters who carry it, and the ending people still argue about. You will not be asked for page numbers or publication trivia — but three or four questions are built to separate people who read the book from people who read a summary. If a question stumps you, that gap is your reading list talking.
Fair warning for the ambitious: readers who clear this quiz often move straight to the reading-time breakdown for A Tale of Two Cities to plan the reread, then test the rest of their shelf against the mixed classic literature quiz.
More book quizzes
Great Expectations quiz, Heart of Darkness quiz, The Time Machine quiz, The Hound of the Baskervilles quiz, 1984 quiz, Animal Farm quiz, Brave New World quiz — or browse every book quiz on the site. For scale, A Tale of Two Cities is the 33rd longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than The Return of the King but longer than The Odyssey.
Doing the whole author? Our Charles Dickens books in order guide lists every book with the best entry point.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the A Tale of Two Cities quiz?
Eight multiple-choice questions covering Charles Dickens's plot, characters and most famous moments. The quiz takes about two minutes and your score is instant.
Is the A Tale of Two Cities book quiz free?
Yes — no signup, no email, nothing to install. Answer the eight questions and get your score immediately.
What score should I aim for?
8/8 means you know the book cold; 6+ is a solid score. Below 4, the book is calling you back for a reread.
Is the A Tale of Two Cities quiz hard?
Moderate — Victorian sentences, but the plot drives; the last third is a runaway. The questions themselves stick to famous, load-bearing moments — the scenes and lines the book is remembered for — so a genuine read usually scores 6+.
How long is the A Tale of Two Cities reading itself?
About 136,000 words — roughly 489 pages, or about 9 hours and 31 minutes at an average pace. The full pace breakdown is in how long it takes to read A Tale of Two Cities. It runs 45 chapters, averaging 3,022 words each; see the book-count guide for its full structure.