A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel
by Charles Dickens partly inspired by Thomas Carlyle’s French Revolution, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.
The story is an epic tragedy that masterly portrays a great hero with a tragic
flaw, caught in an atmosphere of hatred and ruthlessness. The novel tells the
story of a French Doctor, his 18-year-long imprisonment in Paris and his
release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met.
Charles Dickens
Alexander Manette, a young physician started his practice in Paris before French Revolution. After being married to an English lady he became the father of a baby girl. One day December, 1775 he was compelled to follow two aristocrats to a house a few miles away from Paris. In that house he had to attend two patients, a boy and his sister who had been badly rapped by these two men but unfortunately both patients died. Later on, the doctor sent a letter to the minister informing all these secrets but Marquis the Everymonds, who raped the girl, has received the letter of Doctor Manette and without any trial he was put to long eighteen years of imprisonment in Bastille. After eighteen years Dr Manette was released and his faithful servant Earnest Defarge brought him to his wine shop. Soon after, Jarvis Lorry, along with doctor’s daughter Lucie, reached the very place and took him to London where he was expected to be restored to health and sanity.
Charles Darney, nephew of the Marquis
of St. Everymond, has left Franch because of his hatred for his family. Charles
and Lucie fall in love and marry. But there is another person who loves Lucie
with all his heart and will do anything for her sake. During this period the
revolution began to affect the whole of France. Mr. and Mrs. Defarge served as
the leaders of the revolutionaries. In the course of time Charles Darney lured
back to France to save the life of Gabelle, one of his former servants. As he
reached Paris, he was arrested by the revolutionaries because they became
suspicious for his frequent visit to France. Darney was released but rearrested
again and was sentenced to death. Sydney Carton, a friend of Darney and sincere
lover of Lucie, saved the life Darney sacrificing his own life.
The complex plot
involves Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life on behalf
of his friends Charles Darnay
and Lucie Manette. Although Dickens borrowed from Thomas Carlyle’s
history, The French Revolution, for his sprawling tale of London and revolutionary Paris, it is a mammoth work of imagination,
giving a fictional account of the events and causes leading up to that
revolution.
The
book is perhaps best known for its opening lines, “It was the best of times, it
was the worst of times,” and for Carton’s last speech, in which he says of his
replacing Darnay in a prison cell, “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.” A Tale of Two Cities is a story of love, war and tragic heroism.
It is really an interesting novel.
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(This article has been contributed by Dr. Rousanara Begum, assistant professor, Department of English, Furkating College.)
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