《雙城記》是狄更斯比較重要的代表作之一。早在創(chuàng)作《雙城記》之前很久，狄更斯就對(duì)法國(guó)大革命極為關(guān)注，反復(fù)研讀英國(guó)歷史學(xué)家卡萊爾的《法國(guó)革命史》和其他學(xué)者的有關(guān)著作。他對(duì)法國(guó)大革命的濃厚興趣發(fā)端于對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)英國(guó)潛伏著的嚴(yán)重的社會(huì)危機(jī)的擔(dān)憂。
　　1854年底，他說：“我相信，不滿情緒像這樣冒煙比火燒起來還要壞得多，這特別像法國(guó)在第一次革命爆發(fā)前的公眾心理，這就有危險(xiǎn)，由于千百種原因——如收成不好、貴族階級(jí)的專橫與無能把已經(jīng)緊張的局面比較后一次加緊、海外戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的失利、國(guó)內(nèi)偶發(fā)事件等等——變成那次從未見過的一場(chǎng)可怕的大火。”可見，《雙城記》這部歷史小說的創(chuàng)作動(dòng)機(jī)在于借古諷今，以法國(guó)大革命的歷史經(jīng)驗(yàn)為借鑒，給英國(guó)統(tǒng)治階級(jí)敲響警鐘；同時(shí)，通過對(duì)革命恐怖的極端描寫，也對(duì)心懷憤懣、希圖以暴力對(duì)抗暴政的人民群眾提出警告，幻想為社會(huì)矛盾日益加深的英國(guó)現(xiàn)狀尋找一條出路。
　　At that moment a heavy and measured sound began to be audible at some distance. Jean Valjean risked a glance round the corner of the street. Seven or eight soldiers, drawn up in a platoon, had just debouched into the Rue Polonceau. He saw the gleam of their bayonets. They were advancing towards him; these soldiers, at whose head he distinguished Javert’s tall figure, advanced slowly and cautiously. They halted frequently; it was plain that they were searching all the nooks of the walls and all the embrasures of the doors and alleys。
　　Me patrol that Javert had encountered--there could be no mistake as to this surmise--and whose aid he had demanded.Javert’s two acolytes were marching in their ranks。
　　At the rate at which they were marching, and in consideration of the halts which they were making, it would take them about a quarter of an hour to reach the spot where Jean Valjean stood. It was a frightful moment. A few minutes only separated Jean Valjean from that terrible precipice which yawned before him for the third time. And the galleys now meant not only the galleys, but Cosette lost to him forever; that is to say, a life resembling the interior of a tomb.There was but one thing which was possible。
　　Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he carried, as one might say, two beggar’s pouches: in one he kept under his feet and elbows. Half a minute had not elapsed when he was resting on his knees on the wall。
　　Cosette gazed at him in stupid amazement, without uttering a word. Jean Valjean’s injunction, and the name of Madame Thenardier, had chilled her blood。