PR 4571 .C7 Copy 1 (Bnititti to (Rn%li&h ^iKMita ^btvits A TALE OF TWO CITIES (Charles Dickens) BY HELEN HOPKINS CRANDBLL, B.A. AND EDITH CAROL YOUNGHEM, B.A. Instructors of English, Washington Irving High School New York City NEW YORK GLOBE BOOK COMPANY Flatiron Building 175 FIFTH AVENUE M«nograpb GUIDES TO ENGLISH CLASSICS Genuine aids to the study of English classics in secondary schools and. in colleges. Include outlines, summaries, explana- tory notes, biography, bibliography and recent examination questions. Compiled by New York City high school teachers of undisputed fitness and ability. Speech on CoNaLiATiON— Burke As You Like It— Shakespeare Tale of Two Cities — Dickens Julius Caesar Macbeth Shakespeare Essay on Burns— Carlyle Life of Johnson— Macaulay Silas Marner — Euot Idylls of the King — ^Tennyson Merchant of Venice— Shakespeare Browning's Poems (Selected) LIBERAL DISCOUNTS Mabel F. Brooks, B.A., M.A. Theodore Roosevelt High School Alfred A. May, M.A. High School oj Commerce Edith C. Younghem, B.A. Helen H. Crandell, B.A. Washington Irving High School Heuen M. Roth, B.A. Girls' Commercial High School B. J. R. Stolper, B.Sc. Stuyvcsant High School Thomas L. Doyle, M.A. Boys* High School Edith C. Younghem, B.A. Helen H. Crandell, B.A. Washington Irving High School Mabel E. Wilmot, B.A. Bryant High School R. L. NooNAN, B.S. Commercial High School A. M. Works, B.A.,M.A. De Witt Clinton High School ON CLASS okOERS GLOBE BOOK COMPANY FLATIRON BUILDING 176 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY (Bniticti to (Eng:lt0l) Cla60tc0 :^ene0 A TALE OF TWO CITIES (Charles Dickens) BY HELEN HOPKINS CRANDELL, B.A. AND EDITH CAROL YOUNGHEM, B.A. Instructors of English, Washington Irving High School New York City NEW YORK GLOBE BOOK COMPANY 175 FIFTH AVENUE Flatiron Building <,^' -?.*<. -^^e^ Copyright, 1921 GLOBE BOOK COMPANY FEB 26 I9?l ©CLA605910 GENERAL NATURE OF THE WORK A Tale of Tivo Cities is a novel. Novel is the general name given to longer prose narratives of fictitious events. Novels are usually classified as realistic or romantic. The realistic novel ''takes for its own what is likely, what is usual, what is ordinary" ; the romantic novel deals with "the unlikely, the unusual and the extraordinary." The tale that we are studying is plainly a romantic novel, because it relates incidents that are unlikely. Further- more, in the realistic novel the chief interest lies in the development of character, whereas in the romantic novel the chief interest lies in the story itself. Dickens has made the story and not the characters the important interest in A Tale of Two Cities, and his emphasis on the story makes his novel a romantic novel. Sometimes romantic novels deal with modern material. Sometimes historical circumstances are introduced into the setting and affect the plot. A Talc of Tzvo Cities, therefore, is also an historical novel, because it seeks to aid in the understanding of its period : the years leading up to and during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. PREPARATORY INFORMATION Important as are the great Victorian poets (Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold) it is probable that the greatest achievement of the Victorian 3 4 A TALE OF TWO CITIES age (1837-1901) was in the realm of prose fiction, that is, the novel. Unquestionably the leading novelists are Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and George Eliot, all of whom employed the novel as the most successful method of presenting their views of the scientific, critical and sociological ideas of the time. Dickens's chief concern was with people, and almost entirely with people of the poorer classes who had been overlooked in an earlier and less humanitarian literature. His interest in people led to his career as a reformer, for his novels give a picture of evils which needed cor- rection. Thus we see the need for reform of the debtors' prison sponsored in Little Dorrit; of certain private schools, in David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby; of the law courts, in Bleak House;- of work-houses in Oliver Twist; of slums in book after book. It is natural that a man so intensely sympathetic with the poor and the down-trodden should be capable of presenting a color- ful picture of the miseries which caused the French Revo- lution. The first part of ^ Tale of Tzvo Cities appeared in the first number (dated April 30, 1859) of "All the Year Round," a periodical of which Dickens was the editor. Its success was immediate. The story was likewise pub- lished after the fashion of the time in eight monthly parts beginning in June, 1859. O^"^ i^^ completion it was pub- lished as an independent volume by Chapman & Hall, and it was inscribed to Lord John Russell, "in remem- brance of many public services and private kindnesses." A Tale of Two Cities differs from Dickens's other works in that it is a novel of action rather than of char- A TALE OF TWO CITIES 5 acter. In his own words, Dickens set himself the task "of making a pictures([iie story, rising in every chapter, with characters true to nature, but whom the story should express more than they should express themselves by dialogue." CONSTRUCTION In any work of hction, we find three elements: the characters, the plot, and the setting or background. That is, we see certain ])ersons (the characters) doing certain things (the plot) under certain circumstances (the setting). The relative importance of these component parts dif- fers in various novels. In a romantic novel such as A Tale of Two Cities, the plot and the setting are, as has been explained, of highest importance. THE PLOT Book I In the year 1775, Lucie Manette, who believes herself an orphan (chap. 4), is surprised to learn that she must go to Paris to meet her father who has been imprisoned almost eighteen years (chap. 3) in the state prisun, I'he Bastille. She finds him in a miserable garret above Ernest Defarge's wine-shop in St. Aritoine, a wretched quarter of Paris — later known as the hot-bed of lire French Rexo- lution (chap. 5). Solitary and unjust confinement has almost wrecked the reason of one who had been a bril- 6 A TALE OF TWO CITIES liant young doctor, but who now knows himself only in his prison character of ''105 North Tower," a maker of shoes. On the way back to England where Lucie's care is to restore her father to life and love, she enlists the sympathies of Charles Darnay, a young Frenchman now resident in England. Book II Five years later Lucie and her father are called as wit- nesses against young Darnay, who has been indicted for treason (chap. 2). Darnay is acquitted by the cleverness of Sydney Carton, his lawyer's assistant, who draws at- tention to the remarkable resemblance between the ac- cused and himself, thus rendering useless the circumstan- tial evidence of the paid witnesses for the prosecution (chaps. 3 and 4). It is at this trial that both men fall in love with Lucie: Charles Darnay, the handsome, up- right young teacher of French, who soon becomes Lucie's husband (chap. 18), and Carton, his double, whose abili- ties have been wasted in a life marred by laziness, lack of ambition, and drunkenness (chap. 5), and whose con- sciousness of his degradation makes him unwilling to express his love to Lucie except in the words, "There is a man who would give his life to keep a life you love beside you" (chap. 13). Meanwhile in France, the peasants who have suffered for generations at the hands of the cruel and luxury- loving aristocrats are preparing a revolution (chaps. 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 23). Joined with them are the downtrodden inhabitants of the slums of Paris, who live out their .1 TM.E or TWO CITIES 7 miserable lives a stone's throw from the resort of extrava- i;ance and fashion. The influence of the Revolution is destined to extend to England where il will seriously affect the lives of Lucie and her husband, of Sydney Carton, and of Dr. ]\lanette. On the fourteenth of July, 17S9, a day fated to be famous in French history, the Bastille is besieged (chap. 21) and destroyed by the Paris mob, maddened to fury and desperation by years of oppression^ (chap. 22). Soon afterw^ard, Foulon, the stony-hearted minister of finance, is put to death by the ring-leaders of St. Antoine. There follows a wave of destruction and death which creates havoc irreparable among all those members of the nobility who are not fortunate enough to escape, with or without their property, to England. - Three years later, a letter addressed to "Monsieur, heretofore the Marquis St. Evremonde of France," falls into the hands of Charles Darnay (chap. 24). The secret which has been confided to no one but to his father-in- law, Dr. Manette, is out : Charles Darnay is the Marquis St. Evremonde, who abandoned his estates in France be- cause he had no sympathy with the inhuman practices of his uncle, the former Marquis (chap. 9), whose life and property have finally been forfeited to the righteous anger of his downtrodden tenants (chaps. 9, 23 j. The letter is written by the superintendent of the estate w^ho has been thrust into prison and who craves, the assist- ance of Evremonde for his release. ' See note : Bastille. • See note : Emigres. A TALE OF TWO CITIES Book III France in the hands of the Revolutionists has pro- claimed death to the Aristocrats (chap, i), and more particularly to the emigres, whose apparent escape has maddened their enemies the more. And so it is that Darnay upon his arrival in France is thrust into the prison of La Force, nor can his errand of mercy, his previous surrender of his estates, his horror of all the evils which the Revolution is destined to correct, save him. Darnay 's wife, Lucie, and her father hasten to France upon hearing of this calamity. The prisoner's release is effected after fifteen months by Dr. Manette (chap. 6) who, as a Bastille prisoner and consequent sufTerer from the tyranny of the old regime,^ is the popular idol of the mob. No sooner has Darnay been restored to Lucie, however, than he is again arrested (chap. 7) and this time the accusers are Citizen and Citizeness Defarge,- and, despite his own amazement and denial. Dr. Manette, him- self (chap. 9). The prosecution by the Repubhc rests upon a paper written by Dr. Manette while imprisoned in the Bastille, and discovered by Defarge when the Bas- tille was destroyed. Dr. Manette's story as read before the Tribunal of the Repubhc is a tragic one (chap. 10). He as a young and rising physician was summoned one evening to the chateau of two unknown noblemen. There he was called on to attend a young peasant woman who was in a delirious fever caused by the wrongs ^ See note : Ancien regime. ^ See note : Citizen and citizeness. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 9 done to herself, her husl)and, and her father hy the owners of the chateau. In an adjoining room was a dying boy, brother of the unhappy woman, whose fatal wound was inflicted by one of the nobles. Dr. Manette was too late to save either of the victims of the aristocrats' cruelty, but he resolved to rei)ort the double tragedy to the proper authorities, though he had been warned to keep his own counsel. As a result he was thrust into the Bastille, where he was destined to remain for eighteen years. In the account of the circumstances which led to his im- prisonment written in his tenth year in the Bastille, Dr. Manette denounced the family which caused his downfall and all its descendants. The family was the noble one of Evremonde, and con- sequently Charles Darnay, son and nephew of the tw^o brothers, is sentenced to death by the guillotine within twenty-four hours (chap. 10). It is then that Sydney Carton, ennobled by his love for Lucie, accomplishes his great sacrifice which will make amends for a wasted life. His quick wits gain him en- trance to the prison (chap. 10) ; he drugs Darnay, changes clothes with him, and sends him on his way back to Eng- land with Lucie, their child, and Dr. Manette. Carton dies at the guillotine (chap. 15), but in his death he exhibits a sense of peace and calm satisfaction in his great contribution to the happiness of one he loved. STUDY OF BACKGROUND The setting of A Talc of T^i'o Cities is in England and Erance (the "two cities'' are London and Paris) lO A TALE OF TWO CITIES from 1/75 to 1793. Since the events and the customs of the period were so different from those of our own day, the author must take pains to reproduce the atmos- phere of the times for us. Thus the setting or back- ground of the novel is especially important. Historical Background In his study of the historical background of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens depended largely on Carlyle's French Revolution. It is said that as Dickens desired to familiarize himself more thoroughly with the history of the time, he asked Carlyle to lend him some of the authorities referred to in his book; and that Carlyle, in a spirit of jest, sent him two cart-loads of books ! Cer- tain it is that Dickens's natural sympathy with the down- trodden and the oppressed supplemented by a study of many of the available works of reference on the period has enabled him to give to us a portrait of the time inferior to few. The Period in France Before the Revolution The French Revolution was not, as were the American Revolution and the "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 i" England, mainly political. It is true that in France a despotic system of government was overthrown and one more in accordance with the new democratic creed of the times, instituted. But there was also a change in social, A TALE OF TWO CITIES n economic, and moral ideas which was destined to have a far more wide-spread effect than could any mere change in government. The forces which gave rise to the French Kevohition had been preparing for centuries. They had their origin in the old feudal system which was based on class dis- tinctions, especially the granting of privileges to all classes above the lowest. In the years immediately pre- ceding the Revolution, the climax was reached when the king, who represented the upper class in himself, indulged his love of power in new acts of almost unbelievable extravagance. The ruler was an absolute monarch, in all that the term implies. He claimed to rule by divine right, and was, therefore, not responsible to his people for any act what- soever. Nevertheless, it was these very people over whom he had supreme authority, for he made the laws, levied the taxes, spent them as he chose, declared wars, made peace— all according to his personal whim. In truth, the words of Louis XIV were but a statement of fact: "L'Etat, c'est moi!" (The state: that is myself.) The French king lived in luxury that has never been surpassed. The three rulers who immediately preceded the Revolution (Louis XIV, XV, XVI) resided in the splendid palaces of Versailles, twelve miles from Paris. The dwelling which had cost about a hundred million dollars in terms of our money to-day; which contained hundreds of rooms, including a chapel, a theatre, numer- ous dining halls and salons ; and which was surrounded by gorgeous formal gardens, beautiful statues and foun- tains, and artificial lakes, housed the most brilliant court 12 A TALE OF TWO CITIES of all Europe — a court numbering over fifteen thousand people. Here luxury ran riot. Queen Marie Antoinette alone had five hundred servants. Her baby girl required the services of eighty more. The king's table cost more than a million and a half dollars a year, while the royal stables, which contained nearly nineteen hundred horses and more than two hundred carriages, cost annually the equivalent of four million dollars. In 1789, the very year of the outbreak of the Revolution which was to end the prac- tice forever, the king spent twenty million dollars on his court at Versailles, while he had presented to his favorite courtiers, in the fifteen years preceding, the equivalent of more than one hundred million dollars of our money. The taxes which supported this extravagance were se- cured in this way. All France was divided into three classes : the Clergy, the Nobility, and the Third Estate. Since the first two classes were exempt from many, if not from all, of the taxes, the burden of supporting the government and the court fell upon the class least able to afford it. Turgot, the minister of finance, estimated that the peasants, the largest division of the third estate, since France was an agricultural country, paid fifty-five per cent, of what they were able to earn to the state. Small wonder that once power was secured to them, it became an instrument of danger in their hands. The Revolution. The Government, desperately in need of even more money than was forthcoming, called, in 1789, a meeting A TALE or 7irO CITJFS i.^ of the Estates General, or representatives of the peoi)le, which had not met in 175 years. The representatives of the Third Estate, reahzing that they stood for ninety-six per cent, of the nation, almost at once formed by them- selves the National Assembly and took the famous "Ten- nis Court" oath, "to come together whenever circum- stances may dictate, until the constitution of the king- dom shall be established." While the National Assembly was attempting constitu- tional reforms in the matter of many of the old feudal abuses, the populace in Paris destroyed the Bastille, and the peasantry began to burn the castles of the nobles in order to wipe out the old feudal records. As a further evidence of the introduction of the new order, the National Assembly drew up a "Declaration of the Rights of Man" which Louis XVI hesitated to ratify. Consequently the Paris mob marched out to Versailles and threatened the king so vehemently that he and Marie Antoinette and the little Dauphin were forced to return to the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, virtually as prison- ers. Meanwhile the National Assembly was at work on a constitution which would reform the evils of the old regime, and after two years' work, in 1791, the first French Republic was proclaimed. This permanent, peaceful revolution was followed by a bloody one known as the Reign of Terror. The horrors of this period are graphically described in A Tale of Two Cities. 14 A TALE OF TWO CITIES References i- In the study of the background of the story the fol- lowing chapters are especially valuable: Book I, Chapter V: A picture of degradation, dirt, igno- rance and want in St. Antoine and similar slums in Paris before the Revolution. Book II, Chapter VII: The establishment of a typical wealthy nobleman in town. Chapter VIII and Chapter XXIII: A contrast be- tween the lives. of the wretched peasants and the luxury-loving nobility. Chapter XXI: The destruction of the Bastille (fol- lowing closely the historical accounts). Chapter XXII: The death of Foulon, the hard- hearted minister of finance (following closely the historical accounts). Book III, Chapter XV : The guillotine. The Period in England The conditions of life in England, though of less im- portance to the story than those in France, were by no means up to our modern standard of social justice. We see the inconveniences of travel by stage coach, the fear of highway robberies and other forms of lawlessness, the common use of the gallows and the pillory, and the in- efficiency and clumsiness of the law-trials with their accompaniment of unscrupulous, hired spies. A TALE OF TWO CITIES CHARACTERS The characters in A Tale of Two Cities are, as has been said, subordinate to the action. They are all blown this way and that in the storm of events which originates in the deep-seated determination of an oppressed people to break its bonds and rise superior to its jailers. Lucie Manette shares with many of Dickens's other heroines the misfortune of being drawn in so colorless and shadowy a manner, that she makes but a slender impression on the reader. She must be sweet and lov- able, for she can inspire affection in the breasts of Darnay and' Carton, of her father and Mr. Lorry, and of the faithful Miss Pross. She has a gentle seriousness of demeanor, and seems capable of retaining her poise and dignity under great emotional stress, although she does faint on one occasion— after the manner common among Victorian heroines. She is a devoted daughter, a loving wife, a sympathetic friend; but she is not a character on whom the memory loves to linger. Charles Darnay is a fitting companion to Lucie in that he seems possessed of all the virtues and yet lacks the breath of life which we are accustomed to expect of a Dickens character. He shows no trace of the haughty, contemptuous, cold-hearted spirit of the Evremondes, so he has evidently inherited better qualities from his mother, who was anxious to make what amends she could for her husband's cruelty. Darnay is so little in sympathy with the conduct of noble French families before the Revolution that he leaves his extensive estate in France ^^ A TALE OF TWO CITIES to support himself by his own labors in democratic Eng- land. His sense of duty is strong, for he makes what he knows must be a dangerous journey to France to aid the imprisoned Gabelle. Darnay is helpful to those in distress— as he proves himself to be on shipboard the night he first meets Lucie; he is brave in the face of misfortune; in a word, he is, at all times, a noble, honor- able, chivalrous gentleman. The pathos in Sydney Carton's character consists in his realization of his own shortcomings, and yet his seem- ing helplessness at their correction. For example- he knows that his mentality, his quickness of perception should make him a success at the bar, but he is content to waste his talents as Stryver's assistant while Stryver wins the resulting honor and advancement He has the noblest feelings as his final sacrifice shows, but he is incapable of making a daily, sustained efifort to correct his slovenly habits and his excessive drinking and thus make himself worthy of Lucie and happiness. He wastes his energies and his abilities during a life- time, only to have them compressed into one glorious moment at the close. It is unnecessary to mention Car- ton s capacity for the deepest and noblest affection, since his final sacrifice is its obvious manifestation; but his constant tender solicitude for Lucie is additional emphasis as to the strength of his feeling. We read that "the con- ception of this character shows in its author an ideal of magnanimity-of charity never surpassed. There is not a grander, lovelier figure than the self-wrecked self- devoted Sydney Carton, in literature or history "' It is impossible for the reader not to be aghast at the .1 TALK 01' TWO CI TIES 17 white-hot fury which pr{Ji)els Madame Defarge, and which makes her the leader in a movement in whicli even her husband would have faltered had it not been for her indomitable spirit of revenge. She is in the fore- front at the liastille, at Foulon's death, at the trials by the Revolutionary Tribunal, at the guillotine. On the one hand she can inflict death in the bloodiest, most brutal manner; on the other, she is needed to warn St. Antoine of si)ies by the use of tact and finesse, or to keep, so accurately, that there is no possibility of error, the knitted register of those condemned to die. Her own ignominious death seems almost an insult to one who is so clearly capable of scaling the heights — whether of virtue or infamy. It has been said that "Madame Defarge will remain the type of a powerful nature poisoned by injustice, and become the incarnation of inexorable and tireless hate." Minor Characters Dickens's gift for humorous caricature is not exhibited to the full in this story, although evidences of it are seen in the persons of Miss Pross, and, of Jerry Cruncher. Miss Press's selflessness and devotion to her "Lady- bird," and her inherent fine feeling seem at odds with her brusque manner, her meager knowledge of the world, and her startling appearance. Jerry Cruncher's two-fold occupation piques our in- terest from the start. By day, he is a trusted, confiden- tial servant and odd-job-man for the respected banking house of Tellson & Co. ; by night, he is a "resurrection man," one who digs up dead bodies, obviously to sell 1 8 A TALE OF TWO CITIES them to medical men for scientific experiments. His atti- tude toward Mrs. Cruncher's "flopping" provides much of the humor to our knowledge of his character, but, as Dickens says, "The devoutest person could have rendered no greater homage to the efficiency of an honest prayer than he did in this distrust of his wife." So far as Jerry's real goodness of heart is concerned, it is proved to us by the effect produced upon him by the terrible scenes he witnessed in France. He not only resolves to give up his unsavory midnight occupation which he had previously termed "only fishin'," but he declares that "Them poor things well out o' this, and never no more will I interfere with Mrs. Cruncher's flopping, never no more !" NOTES I. "A king with a large jaw an-d a queen with a plain face on the throne of England" refers to George III, noted for his obstinacy in dealings at home as well as with the American colonies, and his wife, Charlotte, who was fat and ugly. 2. "A king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face on the throne of France" refers to Louis XVI and his beautiful wife, Marie Antoinette, who was the daughter of one of the ablest of European rulers. Queen Maria Theresa of Austria. Marie Antoinette was only fifteen when she came to France as Louis's bride in 1770, and four years later, on hearing of the death of the old king, Louis XV, the youthful couple are said to have fallen A TALK OF TWO CITIES IQ on their knees, exclaiming, "God help us ; we are too young to rule." The queen's beauty and charm fascinated her people at times, but for the most part they hated her, and nicknamed her "The Austrian Woman" for her sup- posed sympathies with the country of her birth, and "Madame Deficit" for her reckless extravagance. It is she, too, who is credited with saying, when told that many of her people had no bread to eat, "Then let them eat cake." Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette met death at the guillotine in 1793. 3- The guillotine, affectionately personified by the Revo- lutionists as La Guillotine or even St. Guillotine, was an instrument for beheading those who aroused the dis- pleasure of the Revolutionary Tribunal. It was com- posed of two upright posts, grooved on the inside, and connected at the top by a crossbeam. In these grooves, a sharp iron blade descended by its own weight on the neck of the victim who was bound to a board below. The Guillotine, named for Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine, its supposed inventor, has been considered almost the emblem of the Reign of Terror. * 4. Lettres de cachet or sealed letters were orders issued by the king for the arrest and arbitrary imprisonment of any one he pleased. Without trial or formality of any sort, a person might be cast into a dungeon for an in- definite period, until the king happened to remember him again or was reminded by the poor man's friends. As these notorious orders of arrest were nof difficult to 20 A TALE OF TWO CITIES obtain by any one who had influence with the king or his favorites, they often furnished an easy and effective way of disposing of a personal enemy. 5- Tumbrils were farmers' dump-carts which were used to transport the condemned from prison to guillotine. 6. The Reign of Terror is a term given to a period dur- ing the French Revolution, when the Committee of Public Safety adopted the policy of stifling all opposition by terror. The Committee established in Paris a special court known as the Revolutionary Tribunal. Its duty was to try and to guillotine, if guilty, all those suspects who by their conduct or. remarks had shown that they were not in sympathy with the policies of the Revolu- tionists, including particularly all former nobles and the wives, fathers, mothers, and children of those who had left the country. 7- Emigres were the emigrant nobles ; that is, those who fled from the country at the beginning of the Revolution. The mere fact that a man had been aft emigrant was sufficient evidence to condemn him to the guillotine dur- ing the Reign of Terror. 8. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death" was the motto of the French Revolution. 9. A red cap was the emblem of the Revolutionists. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 21 10. Citizen and Citizeness were the titles Ijy which, ac- cording to a Revolutionary decree, all loyal members of the Republic must address each other instead of by the prerevolutionary "Monsieur" and "Madame." II. The tri-color, or French national emblem, of vertical stripes of blue, white, and red, was adopted at the out- break of the Revolution as the badge of the National Guard. 12. The Bastille in Paris was originally a fortress with eight massive, battlemented towers, thick walls, and a moat twenty-five feet wide ; but it later became the state prison. It was hated as the emblem of despotism, be- cause many of the prisoners detained without trial by means of lettres de cachet were confined to it. The Bas- tille was stormed and destroyed, and its prisoners freed by the Paris mob at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. July 14, the anniversary of the taking of the Bas- tille, is still celebrated as a national holiday in France. 13- Ancien Regime or Old Regime applies to the social and political systems of France w^hich preceded, and gave rise to, the Revolution. 14. Farmers-generals or tax-farmers w^re private indi- viduals who, under the old regime, paid a lump sum of money to the state and then themselves collected the 22 ' A TALE OF TWO CITIES taxes, attempting, of course, to extract as much as pos- sible from the people. 15. Jacques was a name common among the peasantry of France; therefore the term Jacquerie is applied to the peasantry, as a whole, particularly as opposed to the nobility. It is doubtful whether the secret society, to which Dickens considers the term, Jacques, a pass-word, really existed. STYLE Dickens's fame depends largely on his inimitable gift for humor. This quality is less obvious in A Tale of Two Cities than in his other books, since, as has been said, he does not here give reign to his genius for cari- cature or humorous exaggeration of characters. The fol- lowing examples will, however, show Dickens's methods : The scene was Mr. Cruncher's private lodging in Hanging-sword Alley, Whitef riars ; the time, half-past seven of the clock on a windy March morning, Anno Domini seventeen hundred and eighty. (Mr. Cruncher himself always spoke of the year of our Lord as Anna Dominoes: apparently under the impression that the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a lady who had bestowed her name upon it.) . . . Mr. Cruncher reposed under a patchwork counterpane, like a Harlequin at home. At first, he slept heavily, but, by degrees, began to roll and surge in bed, until he rose above the surface, with his spiky hair looking as if it must tear the sheets to ribbons. (Book II, Chapter I.) The highflown legal language of the courts, much of which had become meaningless jargon even to those who A TALE OF TWO CITIES 23 used it, is amusingly satirized in Book II, Chapter 2, as follows : Silence in the court ! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Giiilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth ; that was to say, by coming and going between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitor- ously, and otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and North America. Dickens is almost as skillful in the use of pathos as in his use of humor. Occasionally, he exaggerates his pathetic bits, and thus spoils the effect he wishes to give, but as a rule his appeal to our sympathies is successful. Instances of the artistic use of pathos in A Tale of Two Cities are : The dazed, almost childish helplessness of Dr. Manette when he shows the strain of his years of imprisonment. (Book I, Chapter VI.) Dr. iManette's eagerness to avoid his occasional spells of reverting to his shoemaker's tools. (Book II, Chap- ter XIX.) The loneliness of Sydney Carton on the night before he surrenders his life to bring hai:)piness to his beloved. (Book III, Chapter IX.) The little seamstress at the guillotine. (Book III, Chapter XIII.) 24 A TALE OF TWO CITIES Another distinctive feature of Dickens's style exhibited in A Tale of Two Cities is his tendency to foreshadow a coming event by referring to it in metaphor which will, be intelligible only to those who can read between the lines. For instance, the horrors of the Reign of Terror are suggested in Book I, Chapter V, The Wine-Shop, when we read : The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth ; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a nightcap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with -his finger dipped in muddy wine lees — Blood. The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there. In Book II, Chapter IV, we see the suggestion of the dark fate that will befall Sydney Carton in the mention of a winding sheet: He resorted to his pint of wine for consolation, drank it all in a few minutes, and fell asleep on his arms, with his hair straggling over the table, and a long winding- sheet in the candle dripping down upon him. The footsteps heard echoing around the Manettes' little home in Soho, London, are symbolic of the hordes A TALE OF TWO if TIES 25 of people whose lives are destined to affect the lives of the characters we know. In liook IT, Chapter \'I, we have : There was a great hurry in the streets, of people speed- ing away to get shelter before the storm broke; the won- derful corner for echoes resounding with the echoes of footsteps coming and going, yet not a footstep was there. "A multitude of people, and yet a solitude!" said Darnay, .when they had listened for a while. 'Ts it not impressive, Mr. Uarnay?" asked Lucie. "Sometimes I have sat here of an evening, . . . listening, until I have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by and by into our lives, . . . into my life, and my father's." "1 take them into mine," said Carton. '7 ask no ques- tions and make no stipulations. There is a great crowd bearing down upon us, Miss Manette, and I see them ! — by the Lightning." He added the last words after there had been a vivid flash which had shown him lounging in the window. "And I hear them !" he added again, after a peal of thunder. ''Here they come, fast, fierce, and furious !" Afadame Defarge's knitting has a sinister effect on the reader, who realizes the ominous purpose the knitted register will serve. She expresses the connection between her apparently innocent knitting and her victims' fate at the guillotine, in IJook H, Chapter XV, wiien she says: "Yes ; I have a good deal to do." "What do you make, madame?" "Many things." "For instance — " "For instance," returned Aladame Defarge composedly, "shrouds." 26 A TALE OF TWO CITIES LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS I. Birth. A. Portsea, England. B. 1812. II. Parents. A. Father. 1. John Dickens. 2. Employee of the Navy Pay Office. 3. Man of hopeful but improvident nature. B. Mother. 1. Elizabeth Barron. 2. Her son's earhest instructress in reading. III. Childhood. A. Early homes. 1. Portsea. 2. Rochester. 3. Chatham. B. Favorite books. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Bias, Robinson Crusoe. C. Removal to London. 1. Disintegration of his father's fortune. 2. Removal of all the family except Charles to Marshalsea Prison for debt. 3. Experience in a blacking factory. D. Brief period of education at Wellington House Academy. IV. Young manhood. A. Experience as an office boy in a solicitor's office. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 27 B. Promotion to a clerkship in Gray's Inn. C. Career as a reporter. D. Beginning of literary life, 1833, Mr. Minns and His Cousin. Later Life. A. Production of Sketches by Boz between 1833 and 1836. B. Marriage to Catherine Hogarth, 1836. C. Literary output between 1837 and 1842. 1. Oliver Twist. 2. Nicholas Nickleby. 3. The Old Curiosity Shop. 4. Barnaby Rtidge. D. Trip to America, 1842. 1. His new acquaintances. a. Richard Henry Dana. b. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. c. Charles Sumner. 2. Production of American Notes. 3. Production of Martin Chuzdezvit. E. Life between 1844 and 1848. 1. Year spent in Genoa. 2. Interest in private performances (jf old Eng- lish comedies. 3. Quiet life at Lausanne. 4. Production of a. Dombey and Son. b. Christmas Stories. F. Life between 1848 and 1856. 1. Production of David Cop per field. 2. Production of Bleak House. 28 A TALE OF TWO CITIES 3. Journey to Italy with Wilkie Collins, 1853. 4. Public readings at Birmingham. 5. Production of Hard Times. 6. Production of Little Dorrit. G. Last Days. 1. Purchase of Gadshill Place, the gratification of his life-long desire, 1856. 2. Separation from wife. 3. Production of ^ Tale of Two Cities, 1859. 4. Production of Great Expectations. 5. Lecture tour in America. 6. Arrangement for a series of one hundred readings in England. 7. Beginning of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. H. Death. 1. June 9, 1870. 2. Burial in Westminster Abbey. GENERAL QUESTIONS ON "A TALE OF TWO CITIES" 1. Write a composition of 150 words on a or h. a. Life at the wine shop. h. The "knitting women" of the Revolution. 2. Why is A Tale of Two Cities called an historical romance rather than an historical novel? 3. How does A Tale of Two Cities differ from any other Dickens novel you have read in respect to plot? In respect to character portrayal? 4. Give the main thread only of the plot of A Tale of Tivo Cities. 5. Jerry Cruncher is necessary to the story only once: when he gains Sydney Carton entrance into prison by enabling him to contradict John Barsad's statement in regard to Roger Cly's A TALE OF TUP CITIES 29 death. Then why has the author given so much space to Jerry tliroughout the story? 6. Is Charles Darnay or Sydney Carton the hero of the story? Give your reasons. 7. Why would it have been a poor plan for Dickens to have written a happy ending to the story by a. Having Carton marry Lucie; b. Having Carton marry someone else? 8. Is A Talc of Two Cities a good title? Is it better than any of the following titles which Dickens noted but later dis- carded: One of These Days, Buried Alive, The Thread of Gold, The Doctor of Beauvais, Long Ago, Five and Twenty Years? REGENTS' AND COLLEGE ENTRANCE QUESTIONS 1. Write a well constructed narrative on the following topic; choose the material from the book from which the topic is taken and write as though the reader were unacquainted with the book: How a drunkard proved a hero in his death {A Tale of Two Cities). 2. Give an account of the characteristics of the French com- mon people as they are depicted in A Tale of Tivo Cities. 3. In paragraph form describe the principal character in A Tale of Tzi'o Cities and show in what respects he or she is made lifelike. 4. Write a character sketch of Jerry Cruncher and of Aladame Defarge. 5. Mention tz\.'o American ideals and show in detail how they are embodied in A Tale of Two Cities. 6. Show how, in your judgment, A Tale of Two Cities dis- plays good delineation of human nature or lively humor on the part of the author. In about 150 words discuss this novel with regard to one or both of the qualities mentioned. 7. Tell whether you consider A Talc of Tivo Cities particu- larly good for girls or for boys and give the reasons. 8. Write a review of A Talc of Two Cities including at least two of the following points: (i) other works by the author or 30 A TALE 'OF TWO CITIES writer, (2) summary of the book, (3) persons to whom the book would appeal. 9. Among the great themes of English literature are love, war, nature, religion, patriotism, liberty, brotherhood and passion for a better world order. Show how A Tale of Two Cities develops one or more of these themes. 10. With reference to A Tale of Two Cities answer the three questions given below: (i) Who was the principal male character in the story? (2) What part did he play in the story? (3) What criticism of approval or disapproval would you make of the action of the hero? 11. Tell the story of Dr. Manette's experiences in France up to the time A Tale of Two Cities opens. 12. Write a composition of 150 words on The Devotion of Sydney Carton. BIBLIOGRAPHY Biography Walter Bagehot. — Article on Charles Dickens in Literary Studies, Vol. II. E. P. Dutton. Richard Burton. — Charles Dickens. Bobbs-Merrill Co. G. K. Chesterton. — Appreciation and Criticism of the Works of Charles Dickens. E. P. Dutton. G. K. Chesterton. — Charles Dickens: A Critical Study. Dodd, Mead & Co. Mamie Dickens. — Charles Dickens, by His Eldest Daughter. Cassell. George Dolby. — Charles Dickens as I Knew Him. Lippincott & Co. John Forster. — The Life of Charles Dickens. Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. George Gissing. — Charles Dickens: A Critical Study. Dodd, Mead & Co. Frederick G. Kitton. — Charles Dickens: His Life, Writings, and Personality. D. Appleton & Co. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 31 F. T. Marziah.— Charles Dickens (in Great Writers Series). VV. Scott, London. Belle Moses.— C7/(/r/('.f Dickens. D. Applcton & Co. Leslie Stephen.— Article on Charles Dickens in Dictionary of National Biography. The Alacmillan Co. A. W. Ward.— CVmWt'j Dickens (in English Men of Letters Series). Harper & Brothers. The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Mamie Dickens and Georgina Hogarth. Charles Scribner's Sons. For more complete bibliographies on the life of Charles Dickens, consnlt Charles Dickens: A list of books and of refer- ences to periodicals in the Brooklyn Public Lijjrary, Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn Public Library. Bibliography by John P. Anderson in Charles Dickens, by F. T. Alarzials (above). Criticism Wilbur L. Cross.— The Development of the English Novel. The Macmillan Co. David Masson.— British Novelists and their Styles. The Mac- millan Co. Bliss Perry.— A Study of Prose Fiction. Chapter 9. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Historical Background Cambridge Modern History. Vol. VHL Thomas Car\y\e.—The French Revolution. Compare particularly : Book H, Chapter 21, of A Tale of Tivo Cities with Part I, Book 5, Chapter 6, of Carlyle for taking of Bastille. Book n, Chapter 22, of A Tale\ of Tivo Cities with Part I, Book 5, Chapter 9, of Carlyle for murder of Foulon. Book HI, Chapter 5 of ^ Tale of Tivo Cities with Part HI, Book 5, Chapter 4, of Carlyle for dance of Carmagnole. ?>^ A TALE OF TWO CITIES Mrs. S. R. Gardiner.— T/j(? French Revolution. W. E. H. Lecky. — England in the Eighteenth Century. Vol. V. E. S. Lowell.— r/;