[John Forster], from an unsigned review, Examiner

This novel is remarkable for the rare skill with which all the powers of the author’s genius are employed upon the conduct of the story. In this respect it is unequalled by any other work from the same hand, and is not excelled by any English work of fiction. The subtlety with which a private history is associated with a most vivid expression of the spirit of the days of the great French Revolution is but a part of its strength in this respect. If the whole purpose of the author had been to show how the tempest of those days of terror gathered and broke, he could not have filled our hearts more truly than he has done with a sense of its wild pitiless fury. But in his broadest colouring of revolutionary scenes, while he gives life to large truths in the story of a nation, he is working out closely and thoroughly the skilfully designed tale of a household. The story is all in all, yet there is nothing sacrificed to it. It is as truly the Tale of Two Cities as it is the touching history of Doctor Manette and Lucie his daughter. The pleasure will be great to any thoughtful man who reads the book a second time for the distinct purpose of studying its exquisite construction. Except Mr Stryver, who is necessary to the full expression of the character of Sydney Carton, and the slightly sketched family of Jerry Cruncher by the help of which Jerry himself is cunningly defined, there is not a person in the book who is not an essential portion of the story, there is not a scene that does not carry the tale onward, not even a paragraph that is not spent on urging forward the strong purpose of the book.