One Hundred World's Best Novels Condensed

David Copperfield to Quo Vadis, Don Quixote to The War of the Worlds — a hundred of the world's great novels, each condensed to a brisk summary with its author's life story, as read in 1919.

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A Tale of Two Cities

By CHARLES DICKENS Condensation by SARA A. HAMLIN ON a cold November night, in the year 1775, the English mailcoach, on its way from London to Dover, was carrying among its passengers a Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a London banker of the well-known firm of Tellson & Co. As the coach stumbled along in the darkness, there arose before him the vision of an emaciated figure with hair prematurely white. All night between him and the specter the same words repeated themselves again and again: "Buried how long?" "Almost eighteen years." "I hope you care to live?" "I can't say."

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