Charles Dickens was a famous English novelist from the Victorian period known for iconic novels like A Tale of Two Cities. A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859, tells a story set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. It depicts the cities' differing atmospheres - Paris represented wisdom and belief while London represented foolishness and disbelief. The passage provides context on Dickens and an excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities, then compares photos of buildings and streets from Lviv and Paris to illustrate similarities between the two cities.