A Tale of Two Cities

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Summary

 Book The First: Recalled To Life

 Chapter 1-The Period- England and France in 1775: Both had undistinguished kings and in each country, the status quo was generally accepted as an eternal truth. France was marked by a harsh and repressive social system in which inflation was out of control and a man could be put to death for not bowing to a procession of monks. France was witnessing excessive spending and extreme violence, a trend that anticipated the erection of the guillotine. In England, however the public was worried about religious prophecies as well as the messages arriving from the American colonies about an impending revolution. Burglary and holdups were everyday occurrences, and violence was also very common.

 Chapter 2-The Mail- On a Friday night in November of 1775, a mail car makes its way from London to Dover. The three passengers had gotten out of the car and hiked alongside the car up the steep and muddy hill because the weight of the passengers, the mail, the car, the harness and the hill made it very hard for the horses to climb up the hill with. Out of the darkness appears a man on a horse who asks to speak with Jarvis Lorry of Tellson�s Bank. The passengers react wearily, fearing that they have encountered a highwayman or a robber, however, Mr. Lorry, recognizing the messenger�s voice as that of Jerry Cruncher, the odd-job man at Tellson�s Bank, accepts the message. The note that Jerry gave him said �Wait at Dover for Mam�selle(a young woman).� Lorry instructs Jerry to return to Tellson�s with this reply: �RECALLED TO LIFE.�  Confused and troubled by the message, Jerry rides on to deliver the message.

 Chapter 3-The Night Shadows- The narrator ponders the secrets and mysteries each human being poses to every other. Lorry being in the car with two total strangers seems to back up the narrators point. In the car Lorry starts to drift in and out of dreams, most about the workings of Tellson�s Bank. However, there is always this �current impression that never ceases to run� (this constant thought that never went away), that he was on his way to dig someone out of a grave. He doesn�t know who exactly it is, but he has repetitive conversations with this man who says that he has been buried for 18 years and he gave up hope of being dug out a long time ago. Lorry tells him that he has been �recalled to life�, and he replies that he knows but he can�t say if he cares to live and he asks the specter (person in the grave) if Lorry should show her to him or if the specter will come to see her. The answers he got were various and contradictory such as �Wait! I�ll die if I see her too soon� and �Take me to her� and �I� don�t know her. I don�t understand.�

 Chapter 4-The Preparation- The next morning, Lorry descends from the car at the Royal George Hotel in Dover. After taking off his travel clothes, he emerges as a well dressed business man. That afternoon, a waiter announces that Lucie Manette has arrived from London. Lorry meets the �short, slight, pretty figure� who has received word from the bank that �some intelligence-or discovery� has been made �respecting the small property of my poor father�so long dead.� Lorry reiterates his duties as a businessman to her and then informs her of the real reason she has been summoned to Paris. He tells her that her father, once a reputed doctor, has been found alive. �Your father,� Lorry reports to her, �has been taken to the house of an old servant in Paris, and we are going there: I, to identify him if I can: you, to restore him to life, love, duty, rest, comfort.� Lucie, after hearing this, goes into a state of shock, and her lively and protective servant, Miss Pross, rushes in to attend to her.

Chapter 5- The Wine-shop- The setting shifts to Saint Antoine, a poor suburb of Paris. Paris is oppressed with hunger and poverty, and the breaking of a wine barrel in the street inspires a brief celebration where the people of the neighborhood scoop and sop up the wine to drink it. However, one man uses the muddied wine to write BLOOD on a wall, as a joke, which the wine-shop owner, Ernest Defarge, strongly disapproves of. Madame Defarge, the wife of the wine-shop owner, sits behind the counter watchful of all that goes on around her. As her husband reenters the shop, she points to an elderly man and a young lady standing in the store. He eyes the guests but pretends not to notice them, instead speaking with three familiar customers, each of whom refers to the other two as �Jacques� (a code name that identifies themselves to one anther as revolutionaries). After Defarge directs them to a chamber on the fifth floor and sends them out, Mr. Lorry approaches from the corner and begs to have a word with Defarge. After a brief conversation, Defarge leads the two up a steep, dangerous rise of stairs. They come to a filthy landing, where the three men from the shop were staring through cracks in the wall. Saying that he only shows the Dr. to a chosen few �to whom the sight is likely to do well,� Defarge opens the door to reveal a white-haired man busily making shoes.

 Chapter 6- The Shoemaker- Dr. Manette is clearly mad after spending 18 years in Bastille living through the harsh and cruel tortures of life there. He cannot remember anything, not even his own name. When asked what his name is, he responded �One hundred and five, North Tower.� Lucie approaches him and upon seeing her golden hair, he opens a rag he wears around his neck and removes a similar golden strand of hair. At first, he mistakes Lucie for his wife, and recalls that on the first day of his imprisonment, he begged to be allowed to keep these few stray hairs of his wife�s as a means of escaping the pain of prison. Lucie delivers a speech begging her father to cry if her voice or hair reminded him of a loved one whom he once knew. She hints to him of the home that awaits him and assures him that his agony and pain is over. Manette collapses under a storm of emotions and Lucie urges for his immediate departure for England. Fearing for Manette�s health, Lorry protests the move, but Lucie insists that travel guarantees more safety than a continued stay in Paris. Defarge agrees and ushers the group into a coach for the trip back to England. 

Book The Second: The Golden Thread

Chapter 1- Five Years Later- The year is now 1780. Tellson�s Bank in London takes pride in being �very small, very dark, very ugly, and very incommodious� and the bank�s partners believed that if it was more welcoming it would lose its reputation as a respectable business. It is located right next to Temple Bar, where until recently, the government would display the heads of those criminals executed. The narrator explains that at that time �death was a recipe much in vogue� meaning that the death penalty was used against all types of criminals, from forgers to horse thieves to counterfeiters. Jerry Cruncher, employed by Tellson�s Bank as an odd-job man wakes up in his small apartment, located in an ugly and unpleasant London neighborhood. He begins his day by yelling at his wife and by throwing a muddy boot at her because she is praying and he says that her prayers are no better than curses designed to wreck his livelihood. He and his son, �young Jerry�, who assists him with his work, camp outside the bank and await the bankers� instructions. When a messenger from inside calls for a porter, Jerry goes in to take the job as his son remains sitting outside, wondering why his father�s fingers always have rust on them. 

Chapter 2- A Sight- The bank clerk Cruncher to go to the Old Bailey Courthouse and await orders from Jarvis Lorry. Jerry arrives at the court, where a handsome young man, Charles Darnay stands trial for treason. His journeys between France and England at a time of hostility between the two countries have brought him under suspicion. Cruncher doesn�t really understand much of the court slang, but he makes out that Darnay has been charged with revealing secret information to the King of France (Louis XVI): namely that England plans to send armed forces to fight in the American colonies. As Darnay looks to a young lady and her distinguished father, a whisper rushes through the courtroom, wondering on who these two are. Eventually, Cruncher discovers that they will serve as witnesses against the prisoner.  

Chapter 3- A Disappointment- The Attorney-General prosecutes the case, demanding that the jury find Darnay guilty of passing English secrets into French hands. The prosecution examines John Barsad, whose testimony supports the Attorney-General�s case. The cross-examination, however, blemishes Barsad�s pure and righteous character. It reveals that Barsad had spent time in debtor�s prison and was involved in brawls over gambling. The prosecution calls its next witness, Roger Cly, whom the defense attorney, Mr. Stryver, also exposes as dubious and untrustworthy witness. Mr. Lorry then takes the stand, and the prosecution asks him, if five years ago, he shared a Dover mail coach with Darnay, and Lorry challenges saying that the passengers were so bundled up, their identities were hidden. The prosecution asks similar questions of Lucie Manette, the young woman Darnay had noticed earlier. She admits meeting Darnay on a ship back to England when she recounts how he helped her care for her father, however she seems to help his case-yet she then inadvertently turns the court against him by reporting his statement that George Washington�s fame might one day match that of George III. Next, Lucie�s father takes the stand and claims he has no recollection of this incident because he was ill. Mr. Stryver is the process of cross-examining another witness, and he is not getting any �result�, when his colleague Sydney Carton passes him a note. Stryver begins to argue the contents of the note, which brings the court�s attention to the uncanny resemblance between Carton and the prisoner. This foils the court�s ability to identify Darnay as a spy beyond a reasonable doubt and the jury returns after deliberation freeing Darnay.

 Chapter 4- Congratulatory- Dr. Manette, Lucie, Mr. Stryver, and Darnay exit the courtroom. The narrator relates that Manette has established himself as an upright and distinguished citizen, though the gloom of his terrible past descends on him from time to time. These clouds descend only rarely, however, and Lucie feels confident in her power as �the golden thread� that unites him to a past and present �beyond his misery.� Darnay kisses Lucie�s hand and turns to thank Mr. Stryver for his work. Lucie, her father, and Stryver leave and a drunk Sydney Carton emerges from the shadows to join the men. Lorry criticizes him on not being a serious man of business. Darnay and Carton make their way to a tavern, where Carton arrogantly asks, �Is it worth being tried for life, to be the object of (Lucie�s) sympathy and compassion�?� When Darnay comments that Carton has been drinking, Carton gives his reason for indulging himself so: �I am a disappointed drudge (worker), sir. I care for no man on earth and no man earth cares for me.� After Darnay leaves, Carton curses his own image in the mirror as well as Darnay who reminds him of what he has �fallen away from.�

 Chapter 5- The Jackal- Sydney Carton, the �idlest and most unpromising of men,� makes his way from the tavern to Mr. Stryver�s apartment. The two unofficial partners drink together ad discuss the day�s court proceedings. Stryver nicknamed the �lion� compliments Carton, �the jackal,� on his �rare point� that he made regarding Darnay�s identification. However, he criticizes Carton�s moodiness and Stryver observes that ever since their days together in high school, Carton has fluctuated between highs and lows, �now in spirits (happiness), now in despondency (misery)!� Carton shrugs off the accusation that his life lacks a unified direction. Attempting to change the subject, Stryver turns the conversation to Lucie, praising her beauty. Carton says she is a �golden-haired doll,� but Stryver wonders about Carton�s true feelings for her.

 Chapter 6- Hundreds of People- Four months later, Mr. Lorry, now a trusted friend of the Manette family, arrives at their home and finding that Lucie and her father aren�t home he starts to talk with Miss Pross. They talk about the number of men, who Miss Pross says have come by the hundred have come to ask to marry Lucie, none of whom are worthy. She says her brother Solomon Pross, was the only one who was worthy, but since he robbed Miss Pross of her possessions and left her in poverty, he is no longer worthy. He goes on to ask if Dr. Manette had returned to his shoemaking, and Miss Pross assures him that the doctor no longer thinks about his imprisonment. Lucie and Manette return and soon Darnay joins them. Darnay tells them that a workman, making alterations to a cell in the Tower of London found a carving in one of the walls: �D I G.� At, first the man thought it were initials but then he realized it spelled the word �dig� and so he began to dig and he found ashes of a scrap of paper that must have been a message written by the prisoner. The story startles Manette, but he soon recovers. Carton arrives and sits with them and they notice footsteps out on the street and that they make a terrific echo. Lucie imagines that the footsteps belong to people that will eventually enter into their lives. Carton comments that if Lucie�s speculation is correct, then a great crowd must be o its way.

 Chapter 7- Monseigneur In Town- Monseigneur, a great lord in the royal court, holds a reception in Paris. He surrounds himself with the greatest luxury, for example he has four serving men helping him drink his chocolate. The narrator tells us that his money corrupts everyone who touches it. Monseigneur parades around his guests briefly before he returns to his sanctuary. One guest, Marquis Evermonde stunned by Monseigneur�s arrogance and overconfidence, condemns him as he leaves the party. He then orders his carriage to race through the streets, delighting to see the commoners nearly run down by his horses. Suddenly the carriage comes to a halting stop as a dead child lies dead under the wheels. The Marquis tosses a few coins to the boy�s father and to Defarge who was helping the boy�s father. As he drives away, a coin comes flying back into the carriage, thrown in bitterness. He curses the commoners saying that he would willingly ride over all of them. Madame Defarge watches the scene, knitting the whole time.

 Chapter 8- Monseigneur In The Country- The Marquis arrives at the small village that he serves as lord of. There, the people live in starvation and poverty. As he looks over the many faces, he sees a road-repairer, whose fixed stare bothered him and when he asked what he was staring at, he replied that someone was hanging on the bottom of the carriage. He continues on and arrives at a peasant woman mourning at her husband�s gravesite. She stops and begs him for a stone or a marker, lest he be forgotten, but the Marquis drives away unmoved. He finally arrives at his ch�teau and upon entering, asks if Monsieur Charles has arrived from England.

 Chapter 9- The Gorgon�s Head- Later that night, at the Marquis�s ch�teau, Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis arrives by carriage. Darnay tells his uncle that he wants to renounce the title and the property that he stands to inherit when the Marquis dies. The family�s name, Darnay says is associated with �fear and slavery.� He insists that the family has consistently acted shamefully �injuring every human creature who came between us and our pleasure.� The Marquis dismisses these protests and urges his nephew to accept his �natural destiny.� The next morning the Marquis is found dead with a knife through his heart. Attached to the knife is a note that reads: �Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from JACQUES.�

 Chapter 10- Two Promises- A year later, Darnay makes a reasonable living as a French teacher in London. He visits Dr. Manette and admits his love for Lucie and he honors Manette�s special bond with his daughter, assuring him that his own love for Lucie will not interfere with that bond. Manette applauds Darnay for speaking so �freely and so manfully� and asks if he seeks a promise from him. Darnay asks Manette to promise to vouch for what he has said, for the true nature of his love, should Lucie ever ask. Manette promises this and wanting to be worthy of his confidence, Darnay attempts to tell Manette his real name, confessing that it is not Darnay. Manette stops him short, making him promise to reveal his name only if he proves successful in his courtship; he will hear Darnay�s secret on his wedding day. Hours later, after Darnay has left, Lucie hears her father cobbling away at his shoemaker�s bench. Frightened by his relapse, she watches him as he sleeps that night. 

Chapter 11- A Companion Picture- Late that same night, Carton and Stryver work in Stryver�s chambers and in his puffed-up and arrogant manner, Stryver announces that he intends to marry Lucie. Carton drinks heavily at the news, assuring Stryver that his words have not upset him. Stryver suggests that Carton find �some respectable woman with a little property,� and marry her, lest he will end up ill and penniless.

 Chapter 12- The Fellow of Delicacy- The next day, Stryver plans to take Lucie to the Vauxhall Gardens to make his marriage proposal. On his way, he drops in at Tellson�s Bank to inform Lorry of his intentions. Lorry persuades Stryver to postpone his proposal until he knows for sure Lucie will accept his offer. This upsets Stryver and he almost calls Lucie a �mincing Fool� but Lorry warns him against doing so. Lorry asks that Stryver holds off a few hours to give him time to consult the family to see exactly where Stryver stands. Later that night, Lorry visits Stryver and informs him that his fears have been confirmed and that if Stryver were to propose, the Manettes would reject his offer. Stryver dismisses the entire affair as one of the �vanities� of �empty headed girls� and begs Lorry to forget it.

 Chapter 13- The Fellow of No Delicacy- Carton, who frequently wanders by the Manette house late at night, enters the house one August day and speaks to Lucie alone. He tells her about his wasted life and how he shall never live a better life than the one he lives now. She assures him that he might become much worthier of himself. She believes that her care and affection could save him. He insists that he has declined beyond salvation but admits that he has always viewed Lucie as �the last dream of (his) soul.� She has made him consider beginning his life again, though he no longer believes in the possibility of doing so. He feels happy to have admitted this much to Lucie and to know that something remains in him that still deserves pity. He ends his confession with a pledge that he would do anything for Lucie, including giving his life.

 Chapter 14- The Honest Tradesman- One morning outside Tellson�s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, sees a funeral pass by and by asking a few questions he learns that this is the funeral of Roger Cly, a convicted spy and one of the men who testified against Darnay in his court case. Cruncher joins the precession and after much drinking and festivities, the mob buries Cly and for sport, decides to accuse passers-by of spying in order to wreck �vengeance on them.� At home that night, Cruncher once again yells at his wife for her prayers and then announces he is going �fishing.� In reality, he is going to dig up Roger Cly�s body to sell it to scientists. Without Cruncher knowing, his son follows him to the cemetery but runs away terrified. The next day, he asks his father the definition of a �Resurrection-Man�-the term describes men like Cruncher, who dig up bodies and sell them to science. His son announces his intentions to have this job as an adult.

 Chapter 15- Knitting- In Paris, Defarge enters his shop with a repairer of roads whom he calls �Jacques,� while three other men exit the shop individually. Eventually, Defarge and the repairer make their way to the loft where Manette had been hidden where they meet with the three men who had exited the shop whom Defarge also calls �Jacques.� The repairer reports that he had seen a man hanging by a chain underneath Marquis�s carriage. Several months later, he says, he saw the man again, being marched along the road by soldiers. The soldiers led the man to prison, where he remained �in his iron cage� for several days. Accused of killing Marquis, the man was charged with parricide (murder of close relative). According to the rumor, petitions began to pour into Paris begging that the prisoner�s life be spared, however, workmen built a gallows in the middle of town and soon the man was hanged. After the repairer�s recollection, Defarge asks him to wait outside for a moment. The other �Jacques� called for the extermination of aristocracy. One points to the knitting-work of Madame Defarge, which, in its stitching, contains an elaborate registry of the names of those, whom the revolutionaries aim to kill. He asks if she can decipher the names that appear there. Later that week, Defarge and his wife take the repairer to Versailles to see King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and when the royal couple appears, the repairer cries �Long live the King!� and becomes so excited that Defarge must �restrain him from flying at the objects of his brief devotion and tearing them to pieces.� This performance pleases the Defarges, who see that their efforts will prove easier if the aristocrats continue to believe in the peasantry�s allegiance.

 Chapter 16- Still Knitting- The Defarges return to Saint Antoine later that evening and a policeman friend warns Defarge that a spy by the name of John Barsad has been sent to their neighborhood. Madame Defarge resolves to knitting his name into the register. That night, Defarge admits that he is afraid that the revolution might not happen in his lifetime. Madame Defarge dismisses his impatience and compares the revolution to lighting and an earthquake: it strikes quickly and with great force, but no one knows how long it takes to form. The next day, Barsad enters the shop and he masquerades as a sympathizer of the revolutionaries and comments on the horrible treatment of the peasants. Knowing that Defarge once worked as Dr. Manette�s servant, he reports that Lucie plans to marry Charles Darnay, the nephew of Marquis Evermonde. After Barsad leaves, Madame Defarge adds Darnay�s name to the registry, unsettling Defarge, the once loyal servant of Manette.   

Chapter 17- One Night- It�s the night before Lucie�s marriage to Darnay and Lucie and her father have enjoyed long days of happiness together. Dr. Manette has finally begun to put his imprisonment behind him and for the first time since his release he speaks of his first days in the Bastille. In prison, he passed much of his time imagining what sort of person Lucie would grow up to be. He is very happy now, thanks to Lucie, who has brought him �consolidation and restoration� and later that night she sneaks to her father�s room to find him sleeping soundly.

 Chapter 18- Nine Days- Darnay and Manette converse before going to church for Darnay�s wedding to Lucie and Manette emerges �deadly pale� from this meeting. Darnay and Lucie are married and have already departed on their honeymoon and almost immediately a change comes over Manette; he now looks scared and lost. Later that day, Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry discover Manette at his shoemaker�s bench, lapsed into a confused state and they fear he won�t recover in time join the newlyweds, as planned on their honeymoon, and for nine days they keep careful watch over him.

 Chapter 19- An Opinion- On the tenth morning, Lorry wakes up to find the shoemaker�s bench put away and Manette reading a book. He cautiously asks Manette what may have caused the relapse relating Manette�s strange case as though it happened to someone else. He says that some stimulus must have triggered a memory strong enough to cause it and Manette reassures Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry that such a relapse is not likely to occur again because the circumstances that caused it are unlikely to surface again. Still speaking as though the afflicted party were someone other than Manette, Lorry creates a scenario about a blacksmith. Lorry says that if the smith�s forge were associated with a trauma that the smith�s tools should be taken from him to spare him painful memories. Manette says that the man should keep those tools and use them to comfort his tortured mind but then agrees that for Lucie�s sake, to let Lorry dispose of his tools while he is away. Manette leaves to join Lucie and Darnay and in his absence, Lorry and Miss Pross destroy the shoemaker�s bench and burn it and bury the tools.

 Chapter 20- A Plea- When Lucie and Darnay return home from their honeymoon, Sydney Carton is their first visitor. He apologizes for his drunkenness on the night of the trial and delivers a shy and modest speech asking for Darnay�s friendship and then leaves. Afterward, Darnay comments that Carton tends to be careless and reckless and Lucie deems this judgment too harsh and insists that Carton possesses a good, though wandered heart. Lucie�s compassion touches Darnay and he promises to regard Carton�s faults with sympathy.

 Chapter 21- Echoing Footsteps- Years go by and Lucie and her family enoy a tranquil life. She gives birth to a daughter, young Lucie, and a son, who dies young. Lucie still maintains her habit of sitting by the parlor window listening to the echoing footsteps on the street below. By 1789, the echoes reverberate �from a distance� and make a sound �as of a great storm in France with a dreadful sea rising.� One day in July, Lorry visits the Darnays and reports that an alarming number of French citizens are sending their money and property to England. The scene then shifts to the storming of the Bastille in Paris. Defarge and Madame Defarge serve as leaders among the mob. Once inside the Bastille, Defarge grabs a guard and demands to be taken to 105 North Tower. Defarge searches the cell and when he is finished, he rejoins the mob as it murders ad mutilates the governor who had defended the fortress. Madame Defarge cuts off the man�s head.

 Chapter 22- The Sea Still Rises- One week later in Saint Antoine, Defarge arrives bearing news of the capture of Foulon, a wealthy man who once declared that if people were starving they should eat grass. Foulon had faked his own death to avoid the fury of the peasants but was later discovered hiding in the country. The revolutionaries set out to meet Foulon, led by Madame Defarge and a woman known only as The Vengeance to the Hotel de Ville, where Foulon is being held captive. The mob strings up Foulon, but the rope breaks and he does not die until his third hanging. The peasants put his head on a pike and stuffed his mouth with grass. When they finished, the peasants eat their �scanty and insufficient suppers,� parents play with their children, and lovers love (meaning that all was well).              

 Chapter 23- Fire Rises- The French countryside lies ruined and desolate. An identified man meets the repairer of roads and they address each other as �Jacques� to indicate their status as revolutionaries. The repairer leads the man to the ch�teau of the murdered Marquis Evermonde and later that night, the man sets the castle on fire. A rider from the ch�teau urges the village soldiers to help put out the fire to salvage the valuables there, but they refuse. The peasants nearly kill Gabelle, the local tax collector, but he escapes to the roof of his house, where he watches the ch�teau burn. The narrator reports that scenes such as this are occurring all over France.

 Chapter 24- Drawn To The Loadstone Rock- Three years pass and political turmoil continues in France causing England to become a refuge for persecuted aristocrats. Tellson�s Bank has become a �great gathering-place of Monseigneur.� Tellsons�s has decided to send Mr. Lorry to its Paris branch, in hopes that he can protect their valuable ledgers, papers, and records from destruction. Darnay arrives to persuade Lorry not to go, but Lorry insists, saying that he will take Jerry Cruncher as his bodyguard. Lorry receives an urgent letter, addressed to the Marquis St. Evermonde, along with instructions for its delivery. Lorry laments the extreme difficulty of locating the Marquis, who has abandoned the estate willed to him by his murdered uncle. Darnay, careful to let no one suspect that he is in fact the missing Marquis says that the Marquis is an acquaintance of his. He takes the letter, assuring Lorry that he will see it safely delivered. Darnay reads the letter, which contains a plea from Gabelle, whom the revolutionaries have imprisoned for his upkeep of the Marquis�s property. Gabelle begs the new Marquis to return to France and save him. Darnay resolves to go to Paris, with a �glorious vision of doing good.� After writing a farewell letter to Lucie and Dr. Manette, he departs.

Book The Third: The Track of A Storm

Chapter 1- In Secret- Traveling through France proves difficult for Darnay as he is frequently stopped and questioned by the revolutionaries. Upon his arrival in Paris, the revolutionaries put him in a prison called La Force. Darnay protests and reminds the prison guards of his rights; however the guards respond that as an emigrant, Darnay, whom he refers to as Evermonde, has no rights. The guard hands Darnay over to Defarge with the instructions �In secret.� As he is being led away, Darnay talks to Defarge and Defarge wonders aloud why Darnay chose to return to France, in the age of �that sharp female newly-born�called La Guillotine.� Darnay asks Defarge for help but he refuses and puts Defarge in La Force. When Darnay enters, he feels like he has entered the world of the dead, and a fellow prisoner welcomes him to the prison and says that he hopes that Darnay will not be kept �in secret�- the nicer form of en secret, meaning solitary confinement. But Darnay has indeed been sentenced to total isolation, and he soon finds himself in a cell measuring �five paces by four and a half.�

 Chapter 2- The Grindstone- Lucie and Manette storm into the Paris branch of Tellson�s Bank to find Mr. Lorry, to inform him that Darnay has been imprisoned at La Force. Manette remains confident that he can use his standing as a one-time prisoner of the Bastille to help rescue his son-in-law. Lorry sends Lucie into the back room so that he can speak to Manette in private. He and Manette look out into the courtyard, where crowds of people are sharpening their weapons on a grindstone, preparing to kill the prisoners. Manette rushes into the crowd and yells �Help for the Bastille prisoner�s kindred in La Force!�

Chapter 3- The Shadow- Fearing that Lucie and Manette�s presence might compromise the bank�s business, Lorry ushers Lucie, her daughter, and Miss Pross to a nearby lodging and he leaves Jerry Cruncher to guard them. Back at the bank, Defarge approaches Lorry with a message from Manette and following Manette�s instructions, he leads Defarge to Lucie. Defarge claims that Madame Defarge must accompany them, as she will familiarize herself with the faces of Lucie, her daughter, and Miss Pross, in order to better protect them in the future. The woman known as The Vengeance also comes and upon arriving at the lodging, Defarge gives Lucie a note from the imprisoned Darnay urging her to take courage. Turning to Madame Defarge, Lucie begs her to show Darnay some mercy, but Madame Defarge coldly responds that the revolution will not stop for the sake of Lucie or her family.

 Chapter 4- Calm In Storm- Four days later, Manette returns and Lorry notes a change from the once-fragile Manette, who now seems full of strength and power. Manette tells him that he has persuaded the Tribunal, a self-appointed body that tries and sentences the revolution�s prisoners, to keep Darnay alive. Moreover, he also secured a job as an inspecting physician of three prisons including, La Force. This will enable him to ensure Darnay�s safety. Time passes and France rages as though in a fever. The revolutionaries behead the king and queen, and the guillotine becomes a fixture in the Paris streets. Darnay remains in prison for a year and three months. 

Chapter 5- The Wood-Sawyer- As the family waits for Darnay�s trial, Manette tells Lucie of a window in the prison from which Darnay might see her in the street and for two hours everyday, Lucie stands in the area visible from this window. A wood-sawyer who works nearby talks with Lucie while she waits, pretending that his saw is a guillotine (it bears the inscription �Little Sainte Guillotine�) and that each piece of wood that he cuts is the head of a prisoner. One day a mob of people come down the street, dancing a horrible and violent dance known as the Carmagnole and as the dancers depart, the distressed Lucie now sees her father standing before her. As he comforts Lucie, Madame Defarge passes by and she and Manette exchange salutes. Manette then tells Lucie that Darnay will stand trial on the following day and assures her that her husband will do well in it.

 Chapter 6- Triumph- A diverse and bloodthirsty crowd assembles at the trial of Charles Darnay and when Dr. Manette is announced as the father-in-law of Darnay, a happy cry goes up among the audience. The court hears the testimonies of Manette, Darnay, and Gabelle, establishing that Darnay long ago had renounced his title out of disapproval of the aristocracy�s treatment of peasants. These factors, in addition to Darnay�s status of the much-loved martyr Manette, persuade the jury to acquit him and the crowd carries Darnay home in a chair on their soldiers.

 Chapter 7- A Knock At The Door- The next day, although Manette rejoices in having saved Darnay�s life, Lucie remains terrified for her husband and later that afternoon, she reports hearing footsteps on the stairs, and soon a knock comes at the door. Four soldiers enter and re-arrest Darnay. Manette protests but one of the soldiers reminds him that if the Republic demands a sacrifice from him, he must make that sacrifice. Manette asks one of the soldiers to give him the name f the accuser and although it is against the law to reveal such information, he tells Manette that he is following out the orders of Defarge, Madame Defarge, and a third person. When Manette asks for the identity of the third person, the soldier says he will tell him tomorrow.

 Chapter 8- A Hand At Cards- Meanwhile, Jerry Cruncher and Miss Pross discover Miss Pross�s long lost brother Solomon at a wine-shop and Solomon scolds Miss Pross for making a scene over their reunion. He says that he cannot afford to be identified because he is a spy for the Republic. Meanwhile, Cruncher recognizes Solomon as a witness accusing Darnay of treason during his trial in England thirteen years ago. He struggles to remember the man�s name until Sydney Carton, who suddenly appears behind them provides it: Barsad. Carton states that he has been in Paris for a day and has been laying low until he could be useful. He threatens to reveal Barsad�s true identity to the revolutionaries unless he accompanies him to Tellson�s Bank. Upon arriving at the bank, Carton informs Mr. Lorry and Jerry Cruncher that Darnay has been arrested again; he overheard Barsad discussing the news in a bar. Carton has a plan to help Darnay, if he is convicted, and threatens to expose Barsad as English spy should he fail to cooperate. Carton reveals that he has seen Barsad talking with Roger Cly, a known English spy. Barsad counters by saying Cly s dead, and he showed Carton the certificate of burial but Cruncher disproves the story by saying Cly�s coffin was filled only with stones and dirt. Though Cruncher is unwilling to explain how he knows these details, Carton trusts him and again threatens to expose Barsad as an enemy of the Republic. Barsad finally gives in and agrees to help Carton with his secret plan.

 Chapter 9- The Game Made- Lorry scolds Cruncher for leading a secret life(grave-robbing) outside his job at Tellson�s and Cruncher hints that there are many doctors who are involved in grave-robbing who bank at Tellson�s. Cruncher then says that if Lorry will let young Jerry Cruncher inherit his own duties at the bank, he himself will become a gravedigger to make up for all the graves he �un-dug.� After Barsad leaves, Carton tells Lorry and Cruncher that he has arranged a time to visit Darnay before his imminent execution. Carton then reflects that a human being who has not secured the love of another has wasted his life, and Lorry agrees. That night, as he wanders the streets of Paris, Carton thinks of Lucie, and he enters a chemist�s shop and buys a mysterious substance. The words spoken by the priest at his father�s funeral echo through his mind: �I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.� Carton helps a small girl across the muddy street, and she gives him a kiss and the priest�s words echo again through his mind. He wanders until sunrise, and then makes his way to the courthouse for Darnay�s trial. The judge names the accusers: The Defarges and Dr. Manette. Manette reacts with shock and denies having ever denounced Darnay. Defarge then takes the stand and speaks of a letter that he found hidden in 105 North Tower of the Bastille.

 Chapter 10- The Substance of The Shadow- Defarge claims that Manette wrote the letter while imprisoned in the Bastille, and he reads aloud. It tells the story of Manette�s imprisonment. In 1757, a pair of brothers, one, the Marquis Evermonde (Darnay�s father) and the other, the next in line to be Marquis (Darnay�s uncle), ordered Dr. Manette to care for a young peasant woman , who was dying of a fever and her brother, who was dying of a stab wound. The Marquis�s brother had raped the young woman, killed her husband, and stabbed her brother, who died quickly. Although the woman was still alive, Manette failed to save her life. The next day a kind woman- the Marquis�s wife and Darnay�s mother- came to Manette�s door. Having heard about the horrible things done to the peasant girl and her family, she offers to help the girl�s sister, who was hidden away so the Marquis couldn�t find her. Unfortunately, Manette doesn�t know the sister�s whereabouts and the next day, Manette was taken away and imprisoned in the Bastille on the orders of the Marquis Evermonde. After hearing this story, the jury sentences Darnay to death, to pay for the sins of his father and uncle.

 Chapter 11- Dusk- The courtroom pours into the streets to celebrate Darnay�s death sentencing. John Barsad, charged with ushering Darnay back to his cell, lets Lucie embrace her husband one last time. Darnay insists that Dr. Manette not blame himself for the trial�s outcome. Darnay is escorted back to his cell to await his execution the following morning and Carton escorts the grieving Lucie back to her apartment. Carton tells Manette to try his influence one last time with the prosecutors and then meet him at Tellson�s, though Lorry feels certain there is no hope for Darnay, and Carton echoes his response.

 Chapter 12- Darkness- Carton goes to the wine-shop and the Defarges marvel at how much he physically resembles the condemned Darnay. Carton overhears Madame Defarge�s plan to accuse Lucie and Manette of spying and to accuse Lucie�s daughter as well. Defarge finds this unnecessary, but his wife reminds him of her grievance against the family Evermonde: she is the surviving sister of the woman and man killed by the Marquis and his brother. She demands the extermination of their heirs. Carton pays for his wine and returns to Tellson�s. At midnight, Manette arrives home completely out of his mind. He looks about madly for his shoemaking bench. After calming Manette, Carton takes from the Manette�s coat the papers that will allow Lucie, her daughter, and Dr. Manette to leave the city. He gives the documents to Lorry and then Carton gives Lorry his own papers, refusing to explain why. Afraid that the papers may soon be recalled because Madame Defarge intends to denounce the entire family, Carton insists to Lorry that time is of the essence: the family must leave tomorrow. Alone in the street that night, Carton utters a final good-bye and blessing to Lucie.

 Chapter 13- Fifty-Two- Fifty-two people have been condemned to die the next day including Darnay, who resolves to die bravely. Carton appears at the door of Darnay�s cell, and Darnay observes something new and bright in Carton�s face. Carton tricks Darnay into switching clothes with him, dictates a letter of explanation, and then drugs him with the substance that he had bought at the chemist�s shop. He orders Barsad to carry the unconscious Darnay to the carriage waiting outside Tellson�s. At two o�clock that morning, the guards remove Carton from Darnay�s cell, believing him to be Darnay and he goes to stand in the long line of the condemned. A poor seamstress, who was also falsely sentenced to death, realizes that Carton is not Darnay, and she asks him if he is dying for Darnay, and Carton replies and his wife and his child, too. Meanwhile, Barsad delivers the real Darnay to Manette, Lorry, and Lucie, and sends the carriage on its way. Lorry presents the family�s papers at the city gates as they leave and they flee through the countryside, fearing pursuit.

 Chapter 14- The Knitting Done- Meanwhile, Madame Defarge heads toward Lucie�s apartment hoping to catch Lucie in the illegal act of mourning a prisoner. Evidence of such a crime, she believes will strengthen her case against the family. At the apartment, Miss Pross and Jerry Cruncher are in the middle of making their final arrangements to depart Paris. To avoid drawing the suspicion that leaving together might create, she tells Jerry to wait for her with the carriage at the cathedral. When Cruncher leaves, Madame Defarge barges in and demands to know Lucie�s whereabouts and the women fight and Madame Defarge draws a gun. In the struggle, however, Miss Pross shoots her. She meets Cruncher as planned and reports that she has gone deaf from the gunshot.

 Chapter 15- The Footsteps Die Out Forever- Carton and the seamstress reach the guillotine and The Vengeance and the other women worry that Madame Defarge will miss the beheading of Charles Darnay. The seamstress reflects that the new Republic may make life easier for poor people like herself and her surviving cousin. She kisses Carton and goes calmly to her death. Carton then goes to his. The narrator recounts that those who saw Carton die witnessed a peaceful and even prophetic look on his face, and speculates confidently about Carton�s last thoughts: Carton notes the fact that the oppressors in the crowd �have risen on the destruction of the old,� but also realizes that, someday, Paris will recover from these horrors and become beautiful. Also in these imagined last moments, Carton sees Lucie and Darnay naming a child after him. He sees Manette happy and healthy and he sees Lorry living a long and peaceful life. He sees a future, in which he holds a special place in their hearts and in the hearts of generations to come. He sees his own name �made illustrious,� and the flaws he had earlier in his life fade away. According to the narrator, Carton dies in the knowledge that �It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.�

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