Audio: 'The Bastille Prisoner'
In this extract, we hear chapter two of The Bastille Prisoner, based on Book One from A Tale of Two Cities. Despite the fact he carefully adapted, edited and underlined the text in 1861, Dickens never publicly performed the work. He must have put a great deal of thought into the decision not to perform it, because the numerous stage directions included indicate he planned the public reading in great detail.
Excerpt from The Bastille Prisoner, 1861