A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Genre: Social Criticism, Fiction Novel, Historical Novel
Number of pages read: 163/321
Summary: Marquis is waiting for his nephew, Charles Darnay, in his chateau. After a while, his nephew arrives from his long trip from London. His nephew tells him that he does not want to inherit his property and that their family acted very shamefully and didn't care about anyone else except for themselves and their pleasure. In extreme cases, they even killed people. Marquis was convincing Charles that it was his destiny to behave that way and be like everyone else in their family. The next day, Marquis is stabbed by the revolutionaries. They left a note saying that he should be brought to his tomb fast. A year later, Darnay started teaching as a French teacher in London. Darnay fell in love with Lucie but he still hasn't told her, so he approaches Doctor Manette and tells him about his love for his daughter. He assures him that he will not come between him and his daughter. Doctor Manette congratulates him on his emotional speech. He pauses Charles when he tries to reveal his real name and tells him that he will reveal it on their wedding day. The same night, Stryver and Carton have a talk. Stryver tells Carton that he intends to marry Lucie. Carton replies that he is not offended by this. Stryver then tells him that he should also marry a woman with enough property to feed herself and him. The next day, Stryver visits Tellson's Bank. He informs Mr. Lorry that he was on his way to make arrangements in the Vauxhall Gardens for himself and Lucie, so he could propose marriage to her. Lorry suggested that it would be better to wait until he is sure that she will accept his offer. Lorry stops Stryver from calling Lucie a mincing fool. Lorry visits the Manettes and asks them about Stryver. They answer that Lucie would not marry him. Lorry then informes Stryver about the bad news. One day in August, Carton visits Lucie. They have a conversation about Carton's poor life and Lucie tries to persuade him that he should try to change it for the better. A few days later, Jerry Cruncher joins a mob of people passing by to bury Roger Cly, a convicted spy who testified against Darnay. Along the way to the graveyard, they accused random people that passed by for espionage. The same day, late at night, Cruncher tells his family that he is going fishing, while he is actually going to the graveyard to dig up Roger's body to sell it to scientists. His son was following him the whole time, but when he saw the coffin, he got scared, so he ran away. Later, he expressed his wish to become a Resurrection-Man(digging for bodies and selling them to scientists) when he grows up. Meanwhile in France, Defarge talks with a few revolutionaries in his wine shop. They said that they saw the same man that was hanging on to Marquis' carriage being, now being pushed by soldiers to get hung. Defarge's wife was still knitting. In her knitting, she encoded the names of people the revolutionaries planned to kill. One of the revolutionaries asks Defarge if his wife will always be able to read what she had encoded. Later that week, Defarge goes with his wife take the mender of roads to see the king and queen. The mender of roads screams our: "Long live the king". Defarge restrains himself from his excitement. On the way back home, a policeman informs Defarge that there is a spy by the name of John Barsad sent to their neighbourhood. John Barsad visits the wine shop the next day and tries to sympathize with the revolutionaries. He tells Defarge that Lucie plans to marry Marquis' nephew, Darnay. Madame Defarge adds Darnay and Barsad to her knitting. The day before Lucie's marriage, Doctor Manette gets relaxed and gets over the pain of his days of imprisonment. He talks about his time in Bastille. He talks about his worries back then. Later that day, Lucie peeks into his room and finds him sleeping soundly for the first time.
Reflection: Like always, I have enjoyed reading this part of the book. I liked the descriptions and I got used to Dickens's writing style. The book made me wonder when and if the revolutionaries are going to kill the spy and Darnay. I asked myself why would they kill Darnay, but I couldn't find an answer. I am excited to read the rest of the book and I am probably going to read at a higher speed than usual.
Passage: "Age, about forty years; height, about five feet nine; black hair; complexion dark; generally, rather handsome visage; eyes dark, face thin, long, and sallow; nose aquiline, but not straight, having a peculiar inclination towards the left cheek; expression, therefore, sinister."
In this passage, Madame Defarge describes the spy, John Barsad. I chose this passage because Madame Defarge surprised me with her description of the spy. She described him similarly as an investigation police officer would describe somebody. She must have analyzed his face while he was talking to her husband.
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