A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

 

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

This novel takes place during the lead up and onset of the French Revolution.

Dr. Manette is found, by his daughter Lucie who he's never met, making shoes in a room above a wine seller unable to remember who he is until he meets her after having spent eighteen years imprisoned.

Later Charles Darnay is being tried for treason against the English Crown but is defended and acquitted. He is a French aristocrat who left France for England. The Manettes were witness to the trial, with Lucie showing deep sympathy for Darnay. They meet later on and he falls in love with her, asking Dr. Manette for her hand in marriage. 

In France a Marquis runs down a child in his carriage, setting off the constant sentiment that the aristocracy abuses and cares little for the common folk. Darnay returns to France and confronts the Marquis, his uncle, about these things and renounces his family name and legacy. The Marquis is murdered.

Manette relapses into his old confused state after the marriage when Drnay confesses who he really is. But Manette comes out of it and the family is happy for a time, having a child also called Lucie. 

In France the peasants storm the Bastille, setting off the Revolution and killing the aristocrats. A man named Gabelle writes to Darnay asking for help and Darnay decides to go back to France to help. While there, he is arrested as an aristocrat to be beheaded by the guillotine. Darnay's life, and the lives of his new family are under the gun and a plot is hatched by the family's friends to save them, even if some of them need ot sacrifice themselves.

This was a far different tone of Dickens than any of the others I've read by him, and I have to say it wasn't as engaging for me. I missed Dickens's humor and his typical character types, which I really like and makes Dickens's stories fun for me. I had a hard time sticking with the novel, though I'm glad to have read it so I am in the loop regarding its plot and cultural meaning. Dickens seemed to have a lot of sympathy for the aristocracy, even though all of his books criticize the wealthy and the upper classes. I got mixed messages from Dickens in that way.

I'm giving A Tale of Two Cities 3 stars.