A Tale of Two Cities
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 The title page of the first edition of A Tale of Two Cities. |
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| Author | Charles Dickens |
|---|---|
| Country | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
| Released | 1859 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look similar but are very different in personality. Darnay is a romantic French aristocrat, while Carton is a cynical English barrister. However, the two are in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette.
Other major characters in the book include Dr. Alexandre Manette (Lucie's father), who was unjustly imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for many years under a lettre de cachet, and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with a grudge against the Darnay family.
Both the novel's opening (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .) and closing (It is a far, far better thing that I do. . .) are among the most famous lines in English literature.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Book the First: Recalled to Life
Mr. Lorry travels to Dover to meet a young woman, Lucie Manette, in 1775. When she arrives, he informs her that her father, Doctor Manette, a prisoner in Paris for the past eighteen years, has recently been released by the French government. Tellson’s Bank is sending Lorry to identify the doctor (who had been one of Tellson’s clients) and bring him to England. The news upsets Lucie greatly; he tries to comfort her, then calls for help. Miss Pross, Lucie's caretaker and servant, takes charge of her.
The story then shifts abruptly to Saint Antoine, a suburb of Paris, where a cask of wine accidentally splits open and spills on the ground. The poor seize the unexpected windfall, jubilantly drinking the wine off the street. Watching the degradation in disgust is Defarge, the owner of a wineshop and leader of a band of revolutionaries. Afterwards, he goes back into his shop and talks to a group of fellow revolutionaries, who call each other (for anonymity) "Jacques".
Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette arrive and Defarge takes them to his apartment to see Dr. Manette. The doctor is, to all appearances, completely mad. He sits in a dark room all day making shoes, as he did while in prison. Lucie takes him to England.
[edit] Book the Second: The Golden Thread
Five years later (1780), Dr. Manette has recovered from his ordeal. French emigre Charles Darnay is tried at the Old Bailey for spying. Those testifying against him are a John Barsad and a Roger Cly, who claim that he had been reporting on English troops in North America to the French. Dr. Manette and his daughter vouch for Darnay because he had sailed with them on their voyage to England. In the end, Darnay is acquitted because the witnesses are unable to tell him apart from junior defense counsel Sydney Carton, who bears a striking resemblance to him. Carton is depicted unflatteringly as a drunkard; conversely Darnay is set out as a handsome, gallant victim of a deficient British legal process. Carton becomes enamoured with Lucie and jealous of Darnay.
In Paris, the Marquis St. Evrémonde, Darnay's uncle, is returning from an audience with Monseigneur, one of the 'greatest lords in France', when his coach runs over and kills the son of the peasant Gaspard; he throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss; in the assembled crowd is the implacable tricoteuse, Madame Defarge. She throws the money back, enraging the Marquis and leading him to exclaim that he would willingly kill any of the peasants of France.
On his way back to his château, the Marquis passes through a village, where a road mender tells him that he saw a man clinging to the bottom of his carriage. The Marquis has his servant investigate, but discovers nothing and continues on his way.
Darnay returns to France to meet his uncle. Their political positions are diametrically opposed: Darnay is a democrat, while the Marquis is an adherent of the ancien régime. The Marquis is portrayed as a cruel, heartless nobleman:
- "Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky."
That night, Gaspard, the man who had ridden underneath the carriage, murders the Marquis in his sleep. He is later captured and hanged for his crime.
Returning to England, Darnay asks Dr. Manette for his consent to marry Lucie. He is not the only suitor however. Both Stryver, Carton's patron (by way of comic relief) and, more seriously, Carton himself, are captivated by her. Carton is the only one who reveals his feelings directly to Lucie--Stryver is convinced of the futility of his aspirations, and Darnay proposes the marriage to Dr. Manette. When Carton confesses his love to Lucie, he admits he is incapable of making her happy; she has inspired him to lead a better life, but he lacks the energy to follow through. However, he promises to "embrace any sacrifice" for her or one that she loves. Meanwhile, Darnay agrees to reveal his true surname to Dr. Manette on the morning of his marriage to Lucie.
In Paris, Monsieur and Madame Defarge foment Jacobin sympathies. Madame Defarge takes the long view, as opposed to her husband, who is impatient to bring on the revolution. They learn, from an informant within the police, that a spy is to be quartered in Saint Antoine. He is John Barsad, one of those who had given false testimony against Darnay. The following morning, Barsad enters the Defarges' wine shop, but Madame Defarge recognises him from the description she had been given. Barsad acts as an agent provocateur and tries to lead her into discussing the impending execution of the unfortunate Gaspard. In the course of the conversation, he mentions that Darnay is to be married to Lucie Manette.
On the morning of the marriage, Darnay, at Dr. Manette's request, reveals who his family is, a detail which Dr. Manette had asked him to withhold until then. Unfortunately, this unhinges Dr. Manette, who reverts to his obsessive shoemaking. His sanity is restored before Lucie returns from her honeymoon; to prevent a further relapse, Lorry destroys the shoemaking bench which Dr. Manette had brought with him from France.
Later, in mid-July 1789, Jarvis Lorry visits the Darnays and tells them of the uneasiness in Paris. The scene cuts to the Saint Antoine fauborg for the storming of the Bastille, with the Defarges in the lead. With the hated prison in revolutionary hands, Defarge enters Dr. Manette's former cell. He finds the doctor's initials inscribed in the wall, digs beneath them and uncovers a manuscript which the inmate had written during his confinement, condemning the Evremondes, pere et fils (father and son), for his wrongful imprisonment and the destruction of his family.
In the summer of 1792, a letter is delivered to Tellson's bank, addressed to the heir of the Marquis of Evremonde. The letter recounts the news of the imprisonment of one of the Marquis' retainers, Gabelle, and beseeches the new Marquis to come to his aid. By chance, though the bank is unaware of his identity, Darnay receives the letter. He makes plans to travel to Paris, where the Reign of Terror is running its bloody course, blithely indifferent to the danger. Lorry is sent on ahead with a (cryptic) message to the imprisoned Gabelle that he is on his way.
[edit] Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
In Beauvais, erstwhile home of Dr. Manette, Darnay is denounced by the revolutionaries as an emigrant, an aristocrat, and a traitor. His military escort takes him to Paris, where he is imprisoned. Dr. Manette and Lucie along with Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and the daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay, "Little Lucie", leave London for Paris and meet with Mr. Lorry. Dr. Manette tries to use his influence as a former prisoner of the Bastille to have his son-in-law freed. He manages to protect Darnay from being murdered on the night the mobs kill thousands of prisoners. After a year and three months, Dr. Manette successfully defends Darnay at his trial. However, that evening, Darnay is put on trial again, under new charges brought by the Defarges and one unnamed other.
While Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher are on their way to the market, they stop at a tavern to buy wine. There, Miss Pross finds her long-lost brother, Solomon Pross, now a revolutionary official. Neither is happy with the meeting. Jerry Cruncher then recognizes him as John Barsad. Sydney Carton, to their surprise, joins the party and confirms this. He then blackmails Pross, telling him that he knows that he is a spy, as he had overheard his conversation inside the tavern, and a double agent, working for both the French and British governments at different times. Pross reluctantly gives in to Carton's demands.
When Darnay is brought back before the revolutionary tribunal, he is confronted by Defarge, who identifies Darnay as the Marquis St. Evremonde and reads from the paper found in Dr. Manette's cell. The document describes how he had been locked away in the Bastille by the deceased Marquis Evremonde and his twin brother for trying to report their horrific crimes against a peasant family. The younger brother had become infatuated with a girl. He had kidnapped and raped her and killed her husband, brother, and father. Prior to his death, the brother had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister, "somewhere safe." The paper concludes by condemning the Evremondes and all of their descendants, therefore adding Dr. Manette's condemnation to those of the Defarges. Darnay is consigned to the La Force Prison and is sentenced to be guillotined within twenty-four hours.
Carton, while wandering the streets at night, stops at the Defarge wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have Darnay's entire family condemned. Carton discovers that she was the survivor of the ill-fated family mentioned in Dr. Manette's letter. He quickly informs Mr. Lorry and urges him and the others to leave France as soon as possible.
On the day of his execution, Darnay is visited by Carton, who, because of his love for Lucie, offers to trade places with him. As Darnay is unwilling, Carton drugs him and has him carried out to a waiting carriage. The spy, Barsad, tells Carton to remain true to their agreement. Darnay, Dr. Manette, Mr. Lorry, Lucie, and her child flee France. Darnay uses Carton's papers to cross the border and presumably escape to England.
Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher, who had not left with the others, prepare to depart. Meanwhile, Madame Defarge goes to the residence of Lucie and her family, believing that if she can catch them in the act of mourning for Darnay, that they could be held accountable for sympathizing with an enemy of the Republic. Miss Pross sends Mr. Cruncher out to fetch a carriage. While he is away, she is confronted by Madame Defarge. Knowing that if Madame Defarge realizes that her would-be victims have already departed, she might be able to have them stopped and brought back to Paris, Miss Pross pretends they are in another room by closing the door and placing herself in front of it. Madame Defarge orders her to move away, but she refuses. They struggle and Madame Defarge is shot and killed by her own pistol. Miss Pross and Cruncher then quickly leave.
The novel concludes with the death of Sydney Carton. If he had expressed his thoughts and if they had been prophetic, Monsieur Defarge would himself be sent to the guillotine, and a future child of Charles and Lucie Darnay would be named after Carton. His last thoughts are:
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
[edit] Analysis
A Tale of Two Cities is a moral novel strongly concerned with themes of guilt, shame, redemption and patriotism. Dickens' primary source was Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. The narrative is extraordinarily dependent upon correspondence as a medium for ensuring the flow of events, and while not an epistolary novel in the way that Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses is, nevertheless, it is immediately apparent that the flow of letters forms a driving center to much of the narrative development. The novel covers a period between 1775 and 1793, up to the middle period of the French Revolution.
The twists and turns in the work are sinuous. Originally written as a serial novel for publication in newspapers, its chapters open and close with great drama and mystery. Dickens' take on the French Revolution is balanced — he describes the horrors and atrocities committed by both sides.
The two cities referred to in the title are London and Paris. Throughout the novel, pairs of people, places, etc. are compared and contrasted.
The opening sentence, beginning with the line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is one of the most famous in all literature. The final lines are almost as well-known, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
[edit] Characters in "A Tale of Two Cities"
- Charles Darnay – respectable young Frenchman who detests aristocracy; a main protagonist
- Sydney Carton – quickminded but depressed English barrister and alcoholic; a main protagonist
- Lucie Manette – young Frenchwoman whom Darnay and Carton both love; can be seen as a protagonist
- Master Darnay – young, unnamed son of Charles and Lucie Darnay (nee Manette), who died at an early age
- Miss Darnay – daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay, also named Lucie, she is six years old at the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.
- Dr. Alexandre Manette – Lucie's father
- Ernest Defarge – owner of a French wine shop and member of the Jacquerie; husband of Madame Defarge; servant to Dr. Manette as a youth; appears to have more of a conscience
- Madame Therese Defarge – a cruel and vengeful female revolutionary; arguably the antagonist
- The Vengeance – a companion of Madame Defarge referred to as her "shadow," a member of the sisterhood of women revolutionaries in Saint Antoine, and revolutionary zealot.
- Jarvis Lorry – a banker and friend of Dr. Manette
- Miss Pross – Lucie's caretaker
- Monseigneur Marquis St. Evrémonde – cruel uncle of Charles Darnay
- John Barsad – spy who works for both the French and English governments, who Carton cleverly blackmails.
- Roger Cly – spy who collaborates with Barsad.
- Jerry Cruncher – messenger for Tellson's Bank and secretly a body snatcher; also beats his wife.
- C.J. Stryver – Rash, arrogant, and ambitious colleague who feeds off Sydney Carton
- The Seamstress – a young woman caught up in The Terror. She precedes Sydney Carton to the guillotine.
[edit] Adaptations
There have been at least three feature films made based on the book:
- A Tale of Two Cities, a 1911 silent film.
- A Tale of Two Cities, a 1935 black and white movie starring Ronald Colman. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- A Tale of Two Cities, a 1958 version, starring Dirk Bogarde.
[edit] External Links
