In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay tries to escape his heritage as a

French aristocrat in the years leading up to the French Revolution. During

the Revolution, he's captured, but Sydney Carton, a man who looks like

Darnay, takes his place and dies on the guillotine.

A Tale of Two Citiessummary key points:

A Tale of Two Citiestakes before and during the French Revolution. Jarvis

Lorry is traveling to Paris to reunite Dr. Manette with his long-lost

daughter Lucie.

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Dr. Manette has been living in hiding in Paris, awaiting his rescuers who

will return him to England.

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Five years later, Lucie marries Charles Darnay who confesses to Dr.

Manette that he is a member of the French ruling class. Charles is hoping to

bury his past and begin a new life in England.

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When Darnay returns to Paris to save a former servant, he is arrested by the

revolutionaries and sentenced to death.

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Sydney Carton, who resembles Darnay, trades places with him in prison

and dies on the guillotine in his stead while Darnay returns to London.

A Tale of Two Citiescontrasts the social and political events taking place in Paris and
London during (and prior to) the French Revolution in the mid-to-late eighteenth
century. Dickens draws unsettling parallels between the two cities, describing abject
poverty, appalling starvation, rampant crime, ruthless capital punishment, and
aristocratic greed. The novel, which was published in three books during the
mid-nineteenth century, retrospectively questions the degree to which the French
revolutionaries of the late eighteenth century upheld Enlightenment-era ideals of
rational thought, tolerance, constitutional government, and liberty.

Book the First: Recalled to Life

Book One opens in 1775 and focuses on the symbolic resurrection of Dr. Alexandre
Manette, who has finally been released after an eighteen-year imprisonment in the
Bastille. Lucie Manette (his dutiful seventeen-year-old daughter) and Jarvis Lorry (a
business-minded bank clerk) retrieve him from a garret at the top of a wine shop in
Paris. Dr. Manette cannot remember who he is, but he begins to recall his past life
after seeing Lucie for the first time.

Book the Second: The Golden Thread

Book Two takes place five years after the events of Book One. It focuses on Charles
Darnay, a French emigrant who denounces his aristocratic heritage for a new life in
England. Darnay, whose real surname is Evrémonde, is on trial for treason—but is
spared by the intervention of Sydney Carton, a young, alcoholic attorney who happens
to be nearly identical to Darnay. Dr. Manette, who made a full recovery from his
trauma-induced memory loss, builds a successful medical practice in his home near
Soho. Darnay, unaware that his father and uncle were responsible for Dr. Manette’s
long imprisonment, falls in love with Lucie Manette, and the two marry. The novel’s
preoccupation with revolutionary sentiment deepens as the French peasantry buckles
under increasing oppression from the aristocracy. The French Revolution begins, and
Darnay decides to rescue his uncle’s longtime servant, Monsieur Gabette, from Paris.

Book the Third: The Track of a Storm

Book Three highlights the brutality of the French Revolution, particularly during the
Reign of Terror in Paris between 1793 and 1794. Darnay, who cannot hide his
aristocratic heritage, is imprisoned for the crimes of the Evrémondes. He is initially
released (with the help of Dr. Manette, who rushed to Paris with Lucie after they
learned about Darnay’s imprisonment) but is rearrested and sentenced to death.
Ultimately, Sydney Carton, the irredeemable drunk, selflessly switches places with
Darnay—sacrificing himself so Lucie, whom he loves, can return to London with her
husband and daughter.

Summary
(CRITICAL SURVEY OF LITERATURE FOR STUDENTS)

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The early rumblings of the French Revolution are echoing across the English Channel
when, in Paris, an old man waits in an attic for his first meeting with a daughter whom
he has not seen since she was a baby. With the aid of Mr. Jarvis Lorry, an agent for
the Franco-British banking house of Tellson & Co., the lovely Lucie Manette is
brought to Paris to be reunited with her father, who was imprisoned for eighteen years
in the Bastille. Above the wineshop of Madame and Monsieur Defarge, Dr. Manette is
kept secretly until his rescuers can take him safely back to England. Day after day,
Madame Defarge sits outside her wineshop, knitting into a long scarf strange symbols
that will later spell out a death list of hated aristocrats and enemies of the Revolution.

Five years later, Lucie sits beside her father in the courtroom of the Old Bailey, where
Charles Darnay, a teacher of languages, is on trial for treasonable activities that
involve his passing between France and England on secret business. A man named
John Barsad brings charges against him. Lucie and her father testify that they met
Darnay on the boat when they traveled from France five years earlier. The prisoner
was saved when Mr. Stryver, the prisoner’s counsel, pointed across the courtroom to
another man, Sydney Carton, who so resembled the prisoner that legal identification
of Darnay was shaken and Mr. Stryver was able to secure an acquittal for the prisoner.
Carton’s relationship to Stryver is that of the jackal to the lion; the alcoholic, aimless
Carton writes the cases that Stryver pleads in court.

Lucie and her father live in a small tenement under the care of their maid, Miss Pross,
and their kindly friend, Mr. Lorry. Jerry Cruncher, the porter at Tellson & Co. and a
secret resurrectionist, is often helpful. Darnay and Carton become frequent callers in
the Manette household, after the trial that brought them together.

In France, the fury of the people grows. Monseigneur the Marquis St. Evrémonde is
driving in his carriage through the countryside when he carelessly kills a child of a
peasant named Gaspard. The nobleman returns to his castle to meet his nephew,
Charles Darnay, who is visiting from England. Darnay’s views differ from those of
his uncle. Darnay knows that his family committed grave injustices, and he begs his
uncle to make amends. Monseigneur the Marquis haughtily refuses. That night, the
marquis is murdered in his bed.

Darnay returns to England to seek Dr. Manette’s permission to court Lucie. In order
to construct a bond of complete honesty, Darnay attempts to tell the doctor his true
French name, but Manette fearfully asks him to wait until the morning of his marriage
before revealing it. Carton also approaches Lucie with a proposal of marriage. When
Lucie refuses, Carton asks her always to remember that there is a man who will give
his own life to keep a life she loves beside her.

In France, Madame Defarge knits the story of the hated St. Evrémondes into her scarf.
Gaspard was hanged for the assassination of the marquis; Monseigneur’s house must
be destroyed. Barsad, the spy, brings news that Lucie will marry Darnay, the nephew
of the marquis. This news disturbs Defarge, for Dr. Manette, a former prisoner of the
Bastille, holds a special honor in the eyes of the revolutionists.

Lucie and Darnay are married. Carton becomes a loyal friend of the family. Time
passes, and tiny Lucie arrives. When the child is six years old, in the year 1789, the
French people storm the Bastille. At the Bastille, Defarge goes to the cell where Dr.
Manette was a prisoner and extracts some papers hidden behind a stone in the wall.

One day, while Darnay is talking to Mr. Lorry at Tellson & Co., a letter addressed to
the Marquis St. Evrémonde is placed on Mr. Lorry’s desk. Darnay offers to deliver it
to the proper person. When he is alone, he reads the letter. It is from an old family
servant who is imprisoned by the revolutionists. He begs the Marquis St. Evrémonde
to save his life. Darnay realizes that he must go to Paris. Only Dr. Manette knows of
Darnay’s family name, and the doctor is sworn to secrecy.

Darnay and Mr. Lorry go to Paris, the latter to look after the French branch of Tellson
& Co. Shortly after his arrival, Darnay is seized as an undesirable immigrant after
Defarge orders his arrest. Mr. Lorry is considerably upset when Lucie and Dr.
Manette suddenly arrive in Paris. Some of the doctor’s friends inform him of
Darnay’s arrest. The old man feels that his own imprisonment in the Bastille will win
the sympathy of the revolutionists and enable him to save his son-in-law.

After fifteen months of waiting, Darnay is brought to trial. Because he is able to prove
himself innocent of harming the French people, he is freed but forbidden to leave
France. A short time later, he is again arrested, denounced by Defarge and one other
person whose name the officer refuses to disclose.

While shopping one day in the Paris market, Miss Pross and Jerry Cruncher, who are
in Paris with Lucie and Mr. Lorry, meet a man who causes Miss Pross to scream in
amazement and Jerry to stare in silent astonishment. The man is Solomon, Miss
Pross’s lost brother. Jerry remembers him as Barsad, the man who was a spy-witness
at the Old Bailey. Carton arrives on the scene at that moment, and he is able to force
Barsad to come with him to the office of Tellson & Co. for a private conference.
Barsad fears detection of his duplicity, for he is now an employee of the Republican
French Government. Carton and Jerry threaten to expose him as a former spy for the
English government, the enemy of France. Carton makes a deal with Barsad.

When Darnay is once more brought before the tribunal, Defarge testifies against him
and names Dr. Manette as the other accuser. Defarge produces the papers that he
found in Dr. Manette’s cell in the Bastille. Therein the doctor wrote the story of his
arrest and imprisonment because he learned of a secret crime committed by a St.
Evrémonde against a woman of humble birth and her young brother. His account is
enough to convict Darnay. Sentenced for the crimes of his ancestors, Darnay, the
young St. Evrémonde, is condemned by the tribunal to the guillotine.

Carton now begins to visit the Defarge wineshop, where he learns that Madame
Defarge is the sister of the woman ruined by St. Evrémonde years before. With the
help of the false Barsad, he gains admittance to the prison where Darnay was taken.
There he drugs the prisoner and, still aided by the cowed Barsad, has him carried from
the cell, himself remaining behind. The resemblance between the two will allow him
to pass as Darnay and prevent discovery of the aristocrat’s escape.
Madame Defarge goes to the lodgings of Lucie and Dr. Manette to denounce them.
Only Miss Pross is there; the others, including Darnay, are already on their way to
safety. To keep Madame Defarge from learning of their escape, Miss Pross struggles
with the furious woman when she demands admittance to Lucie’s apartment. Madame
Defarge is killed when her pistol goes off. Miss Pross is deaf for the rest of her life.
Lucie and Darnay return safely to England. Carton dies at the guillotine, giving his
own life for the happiness of those he loved.

Summary
(NOVELS FOR STUDENTS)

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Many critics consider Dickens the greatest novelist of the English-speaking world.
Historically he is probably the most popular. Dickens is one...

(The entire section is 1,781 words.)

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A Tale of Two Cities Homework Help

Questions
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Regarding the scene in which the residents of Saint Antoine scurry after the spilling
wine,...

In much the same manner as John Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters in The Grapes
of Wrath, Charles Dickens employs Chapter V of Book the First of A Tale of Two
Cities almost as an intercalary...

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Explain a significant symbol in A Tale of Two Cities.

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One significant symbol that I always remember from reading the book is that of the
word "blood" being written on the wall in wine that had spilled out into the
streets. The wine running...

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Why was Darnay arrested in A Tale of Two Cities?

The first time Darnay is arrested, it is because he has been accused of conducting
secret business between France and England for at least five years; in other words, he
is accused of being a...

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What are specific examples of dualites within A Tale of Two Cities?

Dickens begins the novel with antithesis, comparing London and England. In this
case, he is drawing the reader to the concept of dualities from the start. He continues
by describing many...

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In A Tale of Two Cities, why does Darney go to France?

In the story by Charles Dickens about the French Revolution A Tale of Two Cities,
Charles Darnay received a letter from a well-liked servant who was also a doctor,
Gabelle, who is also the father...