#Classic: A Tale of Two Cities

• Author: C. Dickens
• Title: A Tale of Two Cities
  
• Published: 1859
• Plot: Wikipedia
• List Reading Challenges
  
• Monthly planning
• Classic Club Master list
  

Introduction:

1. This book needs NO introduction…but here goes!
2. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel.
3. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution
4. and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror.
5. Set in London and Paris, it tells the story of two men
6. Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton,
7. …who look similar but are very different in traits.
8. The book starts with the iconic paradox:
9. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
10. it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…. etc.”
11. The book ends with the famous haunting words:
12. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done;
13. it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Conclusion:

1. You must put your “Dickens hat” on
2. to get through…
3. Part 1:
4. cryptic beginning (Dover mail coach)
5. “zoom out”   ch 5 ‘The Wine-Shop’
6. to give you and idea of the chaos in Paris
7. gaunt scarecrows = peasants
8. broken casket spilling wine = blood
9. approaching tempest = revolution.
10. Best quote:
11. “…every wind shook the rags of the scarecrows in vain,
12. for the birds (aristocrats),
13. …fine of song and feather, took no warning.”

1. You will need some coffee
2. to get through…
3. Part 2:
4. Tellson’s Bank controls its staff and customers
5. Best quote:
6. If the bank took on a young worker
7. “…they kept him in a dark place, like a cheese,
8. until he had the full Tellson flavor and blue-mould upon him.”
9. Father and daughter bonding (Dr. Manette and Lucie)
10. Emerging love entanglements
11. French Revolution rages on

1. Part 3:
2. You will need kleenex
3. to get through…
4. the last ‘page-turning’ chapters
5. …with the guillotine in the backround!

Dickens Template:  – (This book contains very few ‘Dickens’ comic  elements).

1. Love triangle: Lucie Manette – Darnay – Carton
2. Deaths : Marquis Evrémonde (assassinated) – Sydney Carton (guillotine, indifferent, and alcoholic attorney) – child killed under marquis’ carriage (Gaspard’s son)  – Foulon (hanged, unscrupulous financier ancien régime) – Mme Defarge (shot with her own gun!)
3. Nicknames: Ladybird (Lucie) –  The resurrection man (Cruncher) grave robber.
4. Star crossed lovers: Lucie Manette and Charles Darnay
5. Little person (dwarf): None
   
6. Little baby dies: None
   
7. Prop:  (secret) document found in chimney in cell 105 North Tower Bastille
8. Dr. Manette’s letter (which is read to the court) (Book 3, ch 10)
9. Eccentric but loving character:  None
   
10. Lawyer(s): Mr Stryver and Sydney Carton
11. Banker: Mr. Jarvis Lorry
12. Unrequited love: Sydney Carton for Lucie Manette
13. Profesional money lender: None
    
14. Villian: Mme T. Defarge
15. Trusting and  naive girl:  None
    
16. Young lower class gir who reached a good position:  none
    
17. Marriage:  Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette
    
18. Simpleton character….but very loving:  none
19. Schoolmaster: none
20. Fairy godmother:  none
    
21. Maid/nurse: Miss Pross (reminds me nurse Peggoty in David Copperfield)
22. Dickens likes to toss shoes in stories:  Dr. Manette is also a cobbler
    
23. Quirky names: none
24. Son caring for father:  none
25. Daughter caring for father: Lucie Manette – Dr. Manette
26. Theater: none
27. Friends for life: none
    
28. Pub: none
    
29. Comic relief character: none
    
30. Theme: revenge   Mme DeFarge:  always knitting
31. “…with the steadfastness of fate” 
32. Malapropism:  Dickens is famous for his witty malapropism:
33. Cruncher  speaks of the year of our Lord as “Anna Dominoes”.
34. Apparently under the impression that
35. ..the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game
36. …by a lady named Anna.  (this book had very few comic moments…)
37. Literary technique:  extended metaphor “buzzing blue-flies” (book 2, ch 3)
    
38. Flies suggest that the way the spectators hovered
39. ..around the trial is similar to flies that are attracted to a potential feast.
40. Dickens creates a clear comparison between the two items.
41. Foreshadowing most poignant quote:  book 2, ch 13 (Carton–> Lucie)
42. “…think now and then that there is a man who would
43. …give his life to keep a life you love beside you.”

Last Thoughts:

1. After reading A Tale of Two Cites  I felt closure.
2. I was mesmerized by the movie version (1935) seen
3. on TV in the 60s’ with my mother.
4. Nothing impresses a child more than  a guillotine!
5. Then in high-school this was my first classic ‘study’.
6. I remembered nothing about the book
7. …except Mme Defarge and her knitting.
8. Now it was time to re-read the book as an adult.
9. #MustRead

Ronald Coleman as the classic Sydney Carton.