A TALE OF TWO CITIES

PLOT SUMMARY
The year is 1775, and social ills plague both France and England. Jerry Cruncher, an odd-job man who works for Tellson’s Bank, stops the Dover mail-coach with an urgent message for Jarvis Lorry. The message instructs Lorry to wait at Dover for a young woman, and Lorry responds with the cryptic words, “Recalled to Life.” At Dover, Lorry is met by Lucie Manette, a young orphan whose father, a once-eminent doctor whom she supposed dead, has been discovered in France. Lorry escorts Lucie to Paris, where they meet Defarge, a former servant of Doctor Manette, who has kept Manette safe in a garret. Driven mad by eighteen years in the Bastille, Manette spends all of his time making shoes, a hobby he learned while in prison. Lorry assures Lucie that her love and devotion can recall her father to life, and indeed they do.
Five years later. Charles Darnay stands accused of treason against the English crown. A bombastic lawyer named Stryver pleads Darnay’s case, but it is not until his drunk, good-for-nothing colleague, Sydney Carton, assists him that the court acquits Darnay. Carton clinches his argument by pointing out that he himself bears an uncanny resemblance to the defendant, which undermines the prosecution’s case for unmistakably identifying Darnay as the spy the authorities spotted. Lucie and Doctor Manette watched the court proceedings, and that night, Carton escorts Darnay to a tavern and asks how it feels to receive the sympathy of a woman like Lucie. Carton despises and resents Darnay because he reminds him of all that he himself has given up and might have been.
In France, the cruel Marquis Evrémonde runs down a plebian child with his carriage. Manifesting an attitude typical of the aristocracy in regard to the poor at that time, the Marquis shows no regret, but instead curses the peasantry and hurries home to his chateau, where he awaits the arrival of his nephew, Darnay, from England. Arriving later that night, Darnay curses his uncle and the French aristocracy for its abominable treatment of the people. He renounces his identity as an Evrémonde and announces his intention to return to England. That night, the Marquis is murdered; the murderer has left a note signed with the nickname adopted by French revolutionaries: “Jacques.”
A year passes, and Darnay asks Manette for permission to marry Lucie. He says that, if Lucie accepts, he will reveal his true identity to Manette. Carton, meanwhile, also pledges his love to Lucie, admitting that, though his life is worthless, she has helped him dream of a better, more valuable existence. On the streets of London, Jerry Cruncher gets swept up in the funeral procession for a spy named Roger Cly. Later that night, he demonstrates his talents as a “Resurrection-Man,” sneaking into the cemetery to steal and sell Cly’s body. In Paris, meanwhile, another English spy known as John Barsad drops into Defarge’s wine shop. Barsad hopes to turn up evidence concerning the mounting revolution, which is still in its covert stages. Madame Defarge sits in the shop knitting a secret registry of those whom the revolution seeks to execute. Back in London, Darnay, on the morning of his wedding, keeps his promise to Manette; he reveals his true identity and, that night, Manette relapses into his old prison habit of making shoes. After nine days, Manette regains his presence of mind, and soon joins the newlyweds on their honeymoon. Upon Darnay’s return, Carton pays him a visit and asks for his friendship. Darnay assures Carton that he is always welcome in their home.
The year is now 1789. The peasants in Paris storm the Bastille and the French Revolution begins. The revolutionaries murder aristocrats in the streets, and Gabelle, a man charged with the maintenance of the Evrémonde estate, is imprisoned. Three years later, he writes to Darnay, asking to be rescued. Despite the threat of great danger to his person, Darnay departs immediately for France.
As soon as Darnay arrives in Paris, the French revolutionaries arrest him as an emigrant. Lucie and Manette make their way to Paris in hopes of saving him. Darnay remains in prison for a year and three months before receiving a trial. In order to help free him, Manette uses his considerable influence with the revolutionaries, who sympathize with him for having served time in the Bastille. Darnay receives an acquittal, but that same night he is arrested again. The charges, this time, come from Defarge and his vengeful wife. Carton arrives in Paris with a plan to rescue Darnay and obtains the help of John Barsad, who turns out to be Solomon Pross, the long-lost brother of Miss Pross, Lucie’s loyal servant.
At Darnay’s trial, Defarge produces a letter that he discovered in Manette’s old jail cell in the Bastille. The letter explains the cause of Manette’s imprisonment. Years ago, the brothers Evrémonde (Darnay’s father and uncle) enlisted Manette’s medical assistance. They asked him to tend to a woman, whom one of the brothers had raped, and her brother, whom the same brother had stabbed fatally. Fearing that Manette might report their misdeeds, the Evrémondes had him arrested. Upon hearing this story, the jury condemns Darnay for the crimes of his ancestors and sentences him to die within twenty-four hours. That night, at the Defarge’s wine shop, Carton overhears Madame Defarge plotting to have Lucie and her daughter (also Darnay’s daughter) executed as well; Madame Defarge, it turns out, is the surviving sibling of the man and woman killed by the Evrémondes. Carton arranges for the Manettes’ immediate departure from France. He then visits Darnay in prison, tricks him into changing clothes with him, and, after dictating a letter of explanation, drugs his friend unconscious. Barsad carries Darnay, now disguised as Carton, to an awaiting coach, while Carton, disguised as Darnay, awaits execution. As Darnay, Lucie, their child, and Dr. Manette speed away from Paris, Madame Defarge arrives at Lucie’s apartment, hoping to arrest her. There she finds the supremely protective Miss Pross. A scuffle ensues, and Madame Defarge dies by the bullet of her own gun. Sydney Carton meets his death at the guillotine, and the narrator confidently asserts that Carton dies with the knowledge that he has finally imbued his life with meaning.


REVIEWS
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." This is one of the best known opening lines in Western Literature, and it gives the reader entry into a book that highlights the ultimate heights of human valor and dignity, juxtaposed with the ultimate depths of human evil. A Tale of Two Cities was first published in 1859 and it takes places in the dark days of the French Revolution. This is both a commentary on the revolution and a heart pounding thriller that will have you holding your breath as you wait to see what will happen to Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, two men whose lives are inextricably entwined.

This one of Dickens more significant works. It has a complicated and well wrought plot, filled with memorable characters such as Madame Defarge. Defarge and her husband run a wine shop, and she sits all day in the shop, silently compiling a knitted register of the enemies of the Revolutionaries, most of whom are destined to become intimately acquainted with Madame Guillotine. A Tale of Two Cities centers around the lives of Charles Darnay, a French Nobleman, Lucie Manette, and Sydney Carton a young Englishman who looks remarkably like Darnay. Carton is the type of character that you cannot help but root for. He is a scoundrel with a golden heart, and Carton saves Darnay's life on several occasion. And his ultimate sacrifice will be indelibly etched in your mind as the true essence of valor.

The two cities in A Tale of Two Cities are London and Paris, and just as the two cities are explored, so are the notions of good and evil, and what they mean to different people in different circumstances. When the story opens, the year 1775 and the terrors of the French Revolution have yet to have occurred. By juxtaposing the two cities, Dickens clearly shows that the horrific events that were to occur in France, could just as easily have occurred in England. It is also a story of self-sacrifice and the extreme lengths that some people will go to - for the sake of a principal. This mythic tale of good and evil is infused with the recurring motif of redemption.
A Tale of Two Cities is essential reading, both because it is a classic work of literature, but also because it is a phenomenal story. It is a marvelously well written story that skillfully weaves elements of romance, history, and unmitigated adventure into a spellbinding narrative.


CHARACTERS
Sydney Carton - A London lawyer who had great potential but has fallen into a life of alcoholism and vice. He serves as an informal legal advisor to Stryver, and he looks remarkably like Charles Darnay.

Roger Cly - A British spy who swears that his only motive is patriotism.

Jerry Cruncher - An odd-job man for Tellson's Bank whose side job is to act as a "resurrection man," which involves digging up dead bodies and selling their parts to scientists.

Monsieur Ernest Defarge - Former servant of Doctor Manette and currently a revolutionary who helps orchestrate the French Revolution from his wine-shop in the Parisian suburb of Saint Antoine. He assumes the name of Jacques Four when engaging in revolutionary activity.

Monsieur Theophile Gabelle - A French postmaster whose harassment by revolutionaries causes Charles Darnay to return to Paris.

Gaspard - A resident of Saint Antoine who is executed for the murder of Monseigneur.

Jacques One, Jacques Two, and Jacques Three - French revolutionaries associated with Defarge.

Jacques Five - Another associate of Defarge; he mends roads.

Jarvis Lorry - A respectable elderly gentleman who is a confidential clerk at Tellson's Bank. He is also an old friend of Doctor Manette. He carried Lucie Manette on the passage back to London after her father was imprisoned.

Dr. Alexander Manette - A Parisian doctor who was imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years, he is a loving father to Lucie Manette.

Solomon Pross or John Barsad - A spy and informer who serves as a turnkey in the Conciergerie in Paris; brother of Miss Pross.

Monseigneur or Marquis Evremonde - A proud and brutal French aristocrat who shows no regard for the lower classes. His twin brother (now dead) was Charles Darnay's father, making Darnay next in line to inherit when Monseigneur is murdered by revolutionaries.

Charles Saint Evremonde or Charles Darnay - A French emigrant to England who renounces his French title and inheritance. After being acquitted of charges that he acted as a spy, he marries Lucie Manette.

Mr. Stryver - An ambitious London lawyer with a large ego. He is an old friend of Sydney Carton's who informally pays him to assist him.

Tom - Coachman of the Dover mail coach.

Mrs. Cruncher - The wife of Jerry Cruncher, she is a religious woman whose husband accuses her of praying against him.

Madame Therese Defarge - Monsieur Defarge's ruthless wife and the ringleader of the Saint Antoine female revolutionaries. She constantly knits a register of those who deserve to die at the hands of the revolution.

Lucie Manette - Doctor Manette's daughter, who was born in France but brought to London at a young age. She was a ward of Tellson's Bank and thought she was an orphan until Mr. Jarvis Lorry took her to Paris to meet her father. She marries Charles Darnay.

Miss Pross - Lucie Manette's loyal, red-faced maid.

Marquise Saint Evremonde - Wife of Monseigneur's twin brother and mother of Charles Darnay.

Lucie Saint Evremonde - Young daughter of Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette.

The Vengeance - A nickname for a friend of Madame Defarge who is a leading revolutionary in Saint Antoine.