Plot+Summary



__Book 1__ In the beginning of //A Tale of Two Citi//// es, //Mr. Lorry is riding on a carriage headed to Dover. The carriage is stopped when Jerry Cruncher, a messenger for Tellon's Bank, gives Mr. Lorry a message. Mr. Lorry replies with "recalled to life" and sends Cruncher back to London. Mr. Lorry has a dream later in the carriage ride about the recent events. Later in Book 1, Lorry meets with Lucie Manette to tell her that her father is alive and in France. This meeting leads to a trip to France where a wine cask is spilled in the streets outside of a wine shop. The perspective of the novel then switches over to Ernest Defarge, the owner of the wine shop, where we see Madame Defarge and the Jacques meeting in the little shop. Mr. Lorry and Lucie meet up with Defarge so they can see Dr. Manette. Once they meet Dr. Manette in the attic of the shop, Mr. Lorry and Lucie realize that Dr. Manette has lost his mind and has been held in a prison for 18 years. Book 1 ends when Mr. Lorry, Lucie, and Dr. Manette leave the country and head to England.

__Book 2__ When Book 2 begins, the reader discovers that time has progressed five years since he or she last saw the characters of the novel. It shows the life of Jerry Cruncher and how he treats his family. Following this, there is a court trial for treason against Charles Darnay in which Mr. Lorry, the Doctor, and Lucie are witnesses. Darnay is acquitted and he has an evening drink with his doppelganger, Sydney Carton. Carton is shown doing all of Mr. Stryver's work for him. Dr. Manette has fully recovered and lives with Lucie and her guardian, Miss Pross. Lucie has many people who want to marry her.

The French nobility (shown in the Marquis) eats delicacies while people starve. The Marquis kills Gaspard's son and does not care about his mistake. He travels on to a small village and goes home. He awaits Darnay's arrival because Darnay is his nephew. Once he arrives, he has a conversation with his uncle about the lower class and how they should be treated. Charles leaves and the Marquis goes to bed. Gaspard swoops in and stabs the Marquis with knife holding a note saying "'Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from JACQUES.'" (99).

Charles becomes successful in England as a French teacher. Darnay goes to the Manette's house to ask Dr. Manette for his daughter's hand in marriage. Manette approves, but after Darnay leaves, Manette is thrown back into his mental state.

Also later that night, Carton and Stryver talk about Lucie. Stryver still bullies Carton immensely. As they talk, Stryver tells Carton that he is going to marry Lucie and that she would be a good trophy to show off to people. Carton just continues to silently do all of Mr. Stryver's work as Stryver describes his plans for marrying Lucie.

Sydney Carton is seen continuously going to the Manettes' house to talk with Lucie. He talks to Lucie about how awful his life is and how much of a failure he is in life. Lucie tries to talk him out of his depression and offers to give him money to give him a fresh start. Carton refuses and tells Lucie that she is the only thing in life that makes him happy. Carton then leaves the house after telling Lucie good bye.

Jerry Cruncher and his son continue with their usual day job at Tellson's Bank until Cruncher sees a funeral procession heading down the street. The funeral is for Roger Cly who was the witness for Darnay's trial. He had been discovered as spy and was put to death. That night when Cruncher and his son return home, Cruncher transforms back into his abusive self and yells at his wife for praying again. Young Jerry gets ready for bed while Cruncher leaves the house to do a chore. Young Jerry becomes curious and secretly follows his father through the streets of England. He follows Cruncher all the way to the graveyard where he witnesses his father and some other men digging up the graves and taking out the coffins. Cruncher opens up the dug up coffin and sees that it is empty... This incident scares Young Jerry so much so that he runs all the way back home with the image that the empty coffin was chasing himself.

The Defarge's meet with the Mender of Roads to discuss how Gaspard has been caught for killing the Marquis. They go back to the wine shop and Madame Defarge talks to John Barsad. Ernest comes back and Barsad leaves. Madame travels through the city and looks at all of the women steadily knitting.

Lucie and her father talk, and Dr. Manette says that he is happy and so is Lucie. Lucie and Darnay are married, and Darnay tells Manette what his true name is and Manette goes into his shoemaking persona again for nine days. After he returns to his professional state, he claims to have no recollection of the past nine days. That tenth night, Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross destroy the shoemaking bench for good. Lucie and Darnay have two kids but one dies in the early years of his life.

Carton shows up to the Darnay's house and tells Darnay that he wishes to be friends. When Darnay mocks him to his wife, Lucie tells him to respect Carton. Mr. Stryver ends up marrying some rich lady for the money. Mr. Lorry heads over to France for business. Everything is fine in England, but in France, the French Revolution is beginning with the storming of the Bastille. Madame Defarge kills some nobles and Ernest goes up to 105 North Tower to search the cell. The chaos in France continues and does not end after the attack on the Bastille. Madame still has work to do...

The peasants of France arrest Gabelle for working for the noble family. Gabelle writes a plea note to Darnay asking him to come free himself from jail. Darnay accepts and heads to France immediately without telling anyone.

__Book 3__ Once Darnay arrives to France, he is instantly imprisoned by the French people. La Guillotine is killing everyone, and people outside of France have no idea how bad things are in France until they get there. Mr. Lorry is surprised when Lucie and Manette appear looking for Darnay. They bring basically everyone else from the novel with them in this act. Mr. Lorry decides it will be a good idea to take the whole family to talk to Madame and the Vengeance to get advice and help. The British people are deathly afraid of the French. Of course Madame and Vengeance just laugh in their faces until Miss Pross coughs in their faces and leaves. Dr. Manette heads out to go help and find Darnay. Lucie and her daughter sit in front of Darnay's prison every day for a year and a half. They continuously see a Wood-sawyer whom they talk with frequently. Darnay is put on trial and is freed again and returns home. Suddenly, people appear at his house soon after and say that the Defarges and Manette have convicted Darnay to send him back to prison for the death penalty. Carton shows up and discovers that Solomon (Miss Pross's brother and "John Barsad") is alive and well. He has become a spy and is working with the "dead" Roger Cly. Carton comes up with a master plan to save Darnay and blackmails Solomon to help him preform the feat. While all this happens, Darnay's third trial is held and a letter written by Manette while he was in the Bastille is read to convict Darnay and his family. It tells how Darnay's family kidnapped a young girl and brutally raped her. They took Dr. Manette there to help her because she was sick. Her brother had come to save her but was stabbed by Darnay's uncle. They both die and Darnay's dad and uncle lock Manette in prison to keep their evil deeds a secret. In the end of the letter, Manette condemns all of Darnay's family to death.... So Darnay is convicted and sentenced to death. Carton prepares for his big plan and gets Mr. Lorry ready to leave France with the Darnay family. Carton goes to the prison and switches places with Darnay and sends Darnay to his family to escape. Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher are cleaning up, getting ready to leave. Cruncher leaves to meet up with Pross later. Suddenly, Madame shows up to kill Lucie and her family. She fights with Pross and accidently shoots herself with her gun. This fight leaves Pross deaf forever. Carton heads up to the Guillotine and is killed in place of Darnay. The Darnay family escapes France safely, leaving Carton the only casualty of the whole mission. The novel ends with a true passage from a prisoner in the Bastille at the time of the Revolution that gave Dickens his inspiration. = = = THE END =