A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is a novel written by Charles Dickens in 1859. The book was originally published in Dickens’ literary periodical, All the Year Round, due to Dickens having a falling out with his regular publishers. The first installment was printed in the first issue on April 30, 1859 and the last was printed thirty weeks later on November 26th.
The story begins in 1775 with Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a businessman who works at Tellson’s bank, traveling to Dover to see Lucie Manette. He begins to tell Lucie that she is not an orphan as she formerly believed but that her father, Doctor Manette, was in the Bastille in Paris and was just released. Monsieur Defarge, a former servant of Dr. Mannette, has been taking care of him after his release from prison. The doctor has lost some of his memory and spends a greats deal of time cobbling shoes, which is a skill he learned in prison. Lucie and Mr. Lorry take the doctor back to London, where Lucie nurses him back to health.
Five year pass and Charles Darnay is being tried in London on a charge of treason for providing the French and Americans with the English’s secrets. Lucie and Doctor Manette met Darnay while traveling from Calais to Dover and told the court of his good qualities. However then Mr. Sydney Carton, who looks exactly like Darnay, suddenly appears and allows for Darnay’s acquittal.
Meanwhile in France, Marquis Evremonde, Darnay’s uncle, runs down a plebian child with his carriage and shows no regret before hurrying to his home. Darnay arrives later that night and renounces his identity as an Evremonde before leaving for England. The Marquis is murdered that night by the French revolutionaries.
Darnay and Carton both begin to fall in love with Lucie. A year passes and Da...

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...belief of resurrection on a personal level and a societal level. This can be seen when Carton creates a new life for the Manettes’ by sacrificing himself. This example also applies to the theme of the necessity of sacrifice. The French revolution demonstrated that a French republic could have only been created if personal loves and loyalties were sacrificed for the good of the country. The last theme shown in the book is the tendency towards violence and oppression in revolutionaries. Dickens sympathized with the French peasants and showed their true need for liberation while focusing on the evil of the revolutionaries themselves.
I personally have mixed feelings about this book. While the novel has an interesting story line, the story itself is hard to follow at times. The writing style of the book makes it confusing; however the story line itself is interesting.