PREVIEW： Chronicles #2 ｜ Charles Dickens： A Tale of Two Cities
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Summary
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel written by Charles Dickens. It's a novel about the French Revolution and the fall of the monarchy in the 19th century, and how the French revolution changed the course of history.
Transcript
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Hello, and welcome to this episode of Chronicles, where this time we're going to be talking
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all about A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I figured it would be good to get
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in early with some Dickens appreciation. So, Charles Dickens was born on February 7th, 1812 in
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Portsmouth, and from the low fortune of his early life, with his father being sent to a debtor's
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prison when Dickens was only a small child, to the renown and wealth that he received in his own
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time. Dickens experienced both the impoverished lows and the celebrity status high society of the
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Victorian era. And in experiencing both the best and worst of life's offerings, he became a man who
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just understood people from all walks of life. He understood their hopes, their dreams, and their
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plight. And his characters were so well realised, from the most misfortunate paupers such as Oliver
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Twist, to the aristocratic exiles like Charles Darmy, who we'll be talking about more from this
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current novel. And of course, his descriptions of London are so vivid, you can almost feel yourself
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walking the streets through his pages. And in doing this, his works came to define the Victorian
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era itself with the adjective of Dickensian. I had a quote that I just wanted to start off with
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about Dickens himself. And it's from G.K. Chesterton, very, very famous writer, philosopher,
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and critic. And he said, whatever the word great means, Dickens was what it means. Even the fastidious
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and unhappy who cannot read his books without a continuous critical exasperation would use the
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word of him without stopping to think. They feel that Dickens is a great writer, even if he is not a
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good writer. He is treated as a classic, that is, as a king who may now be deserted, but who cannot
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now be dethroned. Amongst his many famous works, such as Great Expectations and, of course, A
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Christmas Carol, it is A Tale of Two Cities, which was published back in 1859, that went on to become
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one of his best-selling works. And it's sold, at present, over 200 million copies. And what's interesting
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is that, of Dickens' 15 novels, only two of them are historical fiction, and this happens to be one
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of them. And so, in A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens weaves these threads of fate and love and
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redemption through the intertwined lives of these private citizens of London and Paris, but always
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with this foreboding terror of the French Revolution, ever closer on the horizon as a year's countdown
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to the event that the readers know is coming. And to study one of the most important events,
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probably in all of human history, Dickens armed himself with one source above all others, which was
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The French Revolution, a history by Thomas Carlyle. And Dickens walked London until he knew it as well
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as it knew him. But his view of Paris at that moment of that disastrous epoch was very much informed by
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Thomas Carlyle's authority on the subject. So, without further ado, let's go through A Tale of Two Cities.
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It begins with one of the most famous openings in all of fiction.
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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness.
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It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity. It was a season of light. It was a season
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of darkness. It was a spring of hope. It was a winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing
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before us. We were all going direct to heaven. We were all going direct the other way. In short,
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the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted
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on its being received, for good or for evil, in a superlative degree of comparison only.
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With that famous opening, all told in a single, continuous sentence, the narrative begins
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in 1775. A man journeys to the port of Dover, pondering the news he needs to impart. Recalled
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to life. He is the ever-proper Mr. Jarvis Laurie, a man of business from Tellson's Bank. Inside
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a tavern, he meets with a young woman of surpassing elegance and beauty, Miss Lucy Manette, who is
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accompanied by her dependable governess, Miss Pross, who had raised Lucy ever since her mother's
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passing sometime during her childhood. It is revealed to Lucy that her father, whom she has
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never met, has for the past 18 years been jailed inside the Bastille prison in Paris. This comes
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as a startling shock to the poor girl, as her mother had told her that he was dead.
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This revelation sends Lucy into a swoon, but upon recovery, the three characters depart from
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England and go to bring Lucy's father to safety.
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The story then takes us to its second city, Paris, and we are introduced to Mr and Mrs Defarge,
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the owners of a rustic wine shop, in the impoverished, working-class neighbourhood of Faber-Saint-Antoine.
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When Lucy and her companions come to collect her father, they are taken to a locked room
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above the wine cellar, where Mr Defarge has been keeping him since he was released from
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the Bastille. Upon the opening of the door, a grave sight greets them, a once-respected physician,
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reduced to a hobbled cobbler, with overgrown hair and every hallmark of deep trauma.
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Slowly and with tender delicacy, Lucy is able to recall her father to life, and the repressed
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memories of happiness begin to bring him to his senses. They return to England with Lucy's
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father, but he is insistent that he takes his workbench with him so that he continue to make
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We then catch up with our cast five years on, at the Old Bailey in London, where Mr Charles
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Darnay stands accused of being a French spy. The American Revolution rises across the ocean,
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and Britain can ill afford the French to undermine her efforts to maintain her colonies. But this
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is a stick chop, by the machinations of Darnay's uncle, the Marquis d'Evermond, and his turncoat
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lapdog, John Bassard. In the viewing gallery sits Lucy, accompanied by her now fully restored
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father, Doctor Minette. Despite the Doctor's testimony, and the bombastic defence of the lawyer,
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Mr Stryver, aptly named, it seems like the verdict will be guilty. That is until Stryver's
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assistant, Mr Sidney Carlton, intercedes, remarking on the peculiar resemblance between himself
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and the accused. Despite the dishevelled, drunken display from Sidney Carlton, his case casts
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enough doubt on the jury as to whether or not they have the right man, that Charles Darnay is acquitted
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and allowed to go free. Lucy is delighted, having met Darnay on the passage back across the channel,
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where he was every bit the gentleman. His manners impeccable, his countenance noble,
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and his virtues self-evident. You see, Darnay was born into the French aristocracy,
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but he decides to become a private citizen and forgo his privileges to work an honest job in
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England. His uncle is a distant, cold and tyrannical figure, embodying everything that will light the
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powder keg of the French Revolution. And after a last frosty farewell between Darnay and his uncle,
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the Marquis, the Marquis is murdered in his sleep, as a foreshadowing of the upheaval to come.
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Another year passes, and Darnay approaches Dr. Minette about the prospects of marriage to his
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beloved daughter Lucy. She is the most precious thing in both men's lives. Dr. Minette gives his
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blessing, but tells Darnay that whatever the secrets of his past may be, they can wait until after the
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wedding. By this time, Lucy has become one of the most desirable women in London, with Mr. Stryver
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intending to propose, and even the drunken wastrel Sydney Carlton privately falling in love with her.
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Carlton is a man whose life has always been full of potential in law and in love, a man that could be
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Darnay if he only put down the bottle and tried. But he is who he is, and his love for Lucy is
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unrequited. But in revealing his feelings to her, he makes a solemn promise.
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For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of the better kind,
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that there was an opportunity or capacity to have sacrificed in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for
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you, and for those dear to you. Soon, the time comes for the wedding of Lucy and Charles. For the
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wedded couple, it is a perfect day. But for Dr. Minette, who had finally heard from Charles the
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truth of his Evermond heritage, it brings back the trauma of the Bastille. And while the newlyweds are
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on their honeymoon, the doctor devolves into his broken, shoemaking submissiveness. After a
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nerve-racking week for Miss Delory and Miss Pross, not knowing how or when Lucy's father will recover
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his senses, he appears the next morning with no recollection of his strangeness. But it is agreed
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that at a moment when he cannot notice, his workbench and shoemaking tools will be taken away from him
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and discarded. Mr. Laurie handles all of this with such delicacy that Lucy, the daughter, is unaware
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Years pass. Lucy and Charles have a daughter, little Lucy, who grows up surrounded by the happiness and
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health of her family and friends in the safety and peace of London. But in Paris, seismic events are
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taking place. The Defarges and other Parisians revolt against the Ancien regime and storm the Bastille.
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Society is quickly breaking down. The revolution continues to foment over the passing few years,
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and the former servant of Charles Darnay's is put in jeopardy. Knowing the danger and the risk of losing
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all that life has given him, Darnay, out of this sense of noblesse oblige, returns to revolutionary Paris to
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save his former servant. But as a former aristocrat, the law forbids his return, though this law did
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not exist when he set forth. And so now, in order to save Darnay's life, the vortex of anarchy at the
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heart of the revolution pulls Lucy, her father and their friends towards Paris to save Charles's life.
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The streets of Paris are thronged with mobs, and Madame Guillotine's razor of justice is measured by
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bystanders to the number of pipe barrels they can smoke as she fills through the queue of accused.
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All attend the trial of Charles Darnay. And this is a test of strength for Dr. Minnette,
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as he stands before the mob and attempts to save the life of his son-in-law. Remarkably, against all odds,
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Darnay is declared innocent, and all seems to have gone seamlessly well. But that same day, Darnay is
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re-arrested, and another trial takes place. The architect of the sinister plot to kill Charles is
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none other than Madame Defarge, the ever-knitting, ever-vengeful, ever-merculous woman whose life was
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irrevocably ruined by the Evermond family, and Charles, blameless though he is, will be persecuted
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for as long as it takes for Madame Defarge to see his head removed and all the joys of his life eradicated.
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When the Bastille was stormed back in 1789, a letter was found hidden in Dr. Minnette's cell.
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It is then read aloud for the tribunal and all the spectators to hear. In decades past, Dr. Minnette
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had been brought urgently in the night to save a young woman's life. Her wounds are grave, and she is
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clinging to life after suffering a vile rape at the hands of one of the Evermonds. Her brother lays in
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the next room, having tried to rescue her, only to be mortally wounded. He beseeches a doctor to hear of
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the peasantry's plight. We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we common dogs are by
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those superior beings. Taxed by him without mercy, obliged to work for him without pay, obliged to grind our
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corn at the mill, obliged to feed scores of his tame birds on our own wretched crops, and forbidden for
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our lives to keep a single tame bird of our own. Pillaged and plundered to that degree that when we
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chanced to have a bit of meat, we ate it in fear, with the door barred and the shutters closed, that
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his people should not see it and take it from us. I say we were so robbed and hunted, and were made so
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poor, that our father told us it was a dreadful thing to bring a child into the world, and what
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we should most pray for, that our women might be barren, and our miserable race die out. After such
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suffering, both a brother and sister die. And Dr Minette is threatened not to tell of what happened
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by the Marquis, but the doctor's conscience will not allow it, and in his attempt to report the Evermonds'
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crimes to the authorities, they have Dr Minette imprisoned in the Bastille. Hearing this letter
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read aloud before a tribunal, the trauma of the past once more breaks Dr Minette's psyche,
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and it seems that for Lucy, and her loved ones, she has run out of saviours. The tour de force of
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vengeance that the revolution has unleashed cannot be reasoned with. But then, with Lucy's life threatened,
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her saviour arrives. It is Sidney Carton. With the clarity and call to action that has eluded him
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all his life, he masterminds a plan to help Darmé escape and see him and his family safely back to
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England, gaining entry to the prison cell of the man whose life he has always envied. After exchanging
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clothes, he drugs Darmé and has him taken away to safety, and the resemblance of the two leaves the
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revolutionaries none the wiser regarding the switch. Across the city, Madame Defarge moves like a
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wraith, determined to have Lucy, and her daughter, killed. But Miss Pross, the ageing, forever loyal
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governess faces her down, in an altercation that ends with Defarge accidentally killing herself with her
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own revolver. All of the characters that we've come to care for manage to escape back to the
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sanctuary of England. All except the story's true hero, as Sidney Carton, in complete peace of mind,
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steps towards the guillotine and meditates upon his life.
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I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
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yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
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As his doom approaches, he peacefully reflects on the future, the healing of Paris, and the happiness
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and gratitude that his sacrifice will bring. In one of the most powerful passages that, frankly,
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I've ever read, I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss,
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and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come,
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I see the evil of this time and of the previous time, of which this is a natural birth, gradually
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making expiation for itself and wearing out. I see the lives for which I lay down my life,
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peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more.
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I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants generations hence.
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I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband,
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their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed. And I know that each was not more
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honoured and held sacred in the other's soul than I was in the souls of both. I see that child who lay
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upon her bosom, and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine.
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I see him winning it so well that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his.
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I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men,
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bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place,
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then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement. And I hear him tell the child my
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story with a tender and faltering voice. It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done.
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It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
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Of course, the most central themes of A Tale of Two Cities are both revolution and duality.
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The two cities of the tale, London and Paris, in many ways contrasting examples of civilisation.
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And Charles Dickens, being a man of the city, who loved London with all of his heart,
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was very much warning against what might befall the city that he loves, if the society,
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Victorian rigid society was unwilling to bend and move with the times, as is what happened
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with the downfall of the Ancien Regime. In the story, London represents a sanctuary,
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a place of law, society and manners. And Paris, by example, becomes a place of blood and anarchy and
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mobs and untrammeled persecution. As Dickens lays out in that very famous opening about it being the
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best of times and the worst of times, what he's really saying is that it's an age of contradictions,
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it's an age of opposites, and it's an age of remarkable instability. And so he goes on later
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on in that same introductory chapter to talk about the fact that, well, there was a king in England
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with a square jaw and there was a king in France with a square jaw. There was a queen with a plain face
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and there was a queen with a pretty face. And what he's really saying with this is that don't think
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that England and France are so unalike that the fate of France may not also befall England. But it's
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very interesting to note as well that it is England throughout the entire story. So you have the
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character of Charles Darnay who basically renounces his Frenchness. He basically says, yes, I'm leaving
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all of that behind and I'm going to go to England, which is really the only sensible place for any man
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to live. And it's very interesting to see that Dickens is both sensitive to the reasons for why the
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French Revolution happened in the first place, whilst also essentially disavowing everything
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that took place in the actual revolution itself. If you enjoyed this piece of premium content from
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