A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his subsequent release to live in London. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

As Dickens's best-known work of historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities is said to be one of the best-selling novels of all time. In 2003, the novel was ranked 63rd on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The novel has been adapted for film, television, radio, and the stage, and has continued to influence popular culture.

A Tale of Two Cities served as an inspiration to the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises by Christopher Nolan. The character of Bane is in part inspired by Dickens's Madame Defarge: He organises kangaroo court trials against the ruling elite of the city of Gotham and is seen knitting in one of the trial scenes like Madame Defarge. There are other hints to Dickens's novel, such as Talia al Ghul being obsessed with revenge and having a close relationship to the hero, and Bane's catchphrase "the fire rises" as an ode to one of the book's chapters. Bane's associate Barsard is named after a supporting character in the novel. In the film's final scene, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) reads aloud the closing lines of Sydney Carton’s inner monologue—"It's a far far better thing I do than I have ever done, it's a far far better rest I go to than I have ever known"—directly from the novel. 

🪄LONDON AND PARIS OBEAH 187

📍LONDON [&] PARIS TING 187

🧑🏿‍⚖️KANGAROO COURT CASE 187

🩸REIGNS OF TERROR 187

🪡THE TRICOTEUSES 187

King Charles’s visit to France postponed as anti-Macron rioters scrawl ‘Death to the King’

Security threats including graffiti reading “Death to the King” convinced Emmanuel Macron to postpone King Charles’s state visit to France, it has emerged, amid nationwide strikes and violent protests.

The macabre message was left by protesters rioting against the French president’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Nightly riots were expected to intensify if the King went ahead with his trip to Paris on Sunday as planned.

The decision came as:

• Protesters scrawled “Charles III do you know the guillotine?” in Paris
• Mr Macron said delaying the visit was “common sense”
• Fears were raised over “dangerous” royal handshakes

Violence peaked after coordinated rallies and strikes across France, which crippled travel and public services and saw rioters set fire to piles of uncollected rubbish. In Bordeaux, protesters set the historic city hall alight. There were more protests on Friday, with the port of Marseille blockaded for several hours and debris littering the streets of Paris.

Senior politicians including Mr Macron had received threats evoking the historical use of the guillotine to execute Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette – the last rightful king and queen of France. 🔚

Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for 'liberty, equality, fraternity', is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti, and is an example of a tripartite motto. ⚜

IT WAS THE DIFFERENCE 180 #BLACKREVOLUTION180

The Haitian Revolution was the only known slave uprising in human history that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. It sent shockwaves through the Western colonial world. 

The revolution in Saint-Domingue that brought into being the new state of Haiti occurred around the same time as the French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence and yet it is rarely accorded a similar status of being considered a foundational event of world history.

While there have been significant accounts of the Haitian revolution – most notably, perhaps, CLR James’s The Black Jacobins – few histories of the general ‘Age of Revolutions’ variety have included it as part of their understanding of that age and fewer social scientists, still, have sought to understand the emergence of modernity in the context of the Haitian Revolution.  Continues...

In France the peasant and middle classes fought to overthrow their monarch and restructure a government that was already in place, whereas in Haiti the slaves sought to extinguish the aggressive French colonial government. In the year 1791 The French and Haitian revolutions coexisted.

In May 1791 Paris granted French citizenship to landowners—which included some affranchis and excluded some whites, leading to civil war. A general slave revolt in August started the revolution. Its success pushed France to abolish slavery in 1794, and the Haitian Revolution outlasted the French Revolution. <<< 13 YEARS