《雙城記》是狄更斯最重要的代表作之一。早在創作《雙城記》之前很久，狄更斯就對法國大革命極為關注，反復研讀英國歷史學家卡萊爾的《法國革命史》和其他學者的有關著作。他對法國大革命的濃厚興趣發端于對當時英國潛伏著的嚴重的社會危機的擔憂。

　　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，這特別像法國在第一次革命爆發前的公眾心理，這就有危險，由于千百種原因——如收成不好、貴族階級的專橫與無能把已經緊張的局面最后一次加緊、海外戰爭的失利、國內偶發事件等等——變成那次從未見過的一場可怕的大火。”可見，《雙城記》這部歷史小說的創作動機在于借古諷今，以法國大革命的歷史經驗為借鑒，給英國統治階級敲響警鐘；同時，通過對革命恐怖的極端描寫，也對心懷憤懣、希圖以暴力對抗暴政的人民群眾提出警告，幻想為社會矛盾日益加深的英國現狀尋找一條出路。

　　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。

　　This was some 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。