Rizky Allivia | 16202241042

BOOK REPORT

1. Tilte A Tale of Two Cities

2. Author Charles Dickens

3. Publisher Chapman & Hall

4. Year of publisher 1859

5. Country of publisher London, England

6. Number of pages 168

1. Theme how’s the lives of people in London and France before and during
France Revolution

2. Mood flabbergasted, compassion, and anger

3. Narrator’s point of third person

view
4. Setting time 1775-1793

5. Setting place many places in London and Paris

6. Plot Exposition :
- Dr. Manette is rescued from the Bastille and
brought back to London by Mr. Lorry.
Rising action :
- the peasants strom the Bastille, and the French
Revolution begins.
- Gabelle writes a letter to Dranay, hoping that
he can help rescue him. Charles goes to help at
great personal risk.
Climax
- Darnay is arrested. The Defarges produce a
letter at his trial. Darnay is to be executed.
- Sydney decides to switch places with Charles
to help save Lucie’s family.
Resolution
- Lucie,Charles, daughter, Mr. Lorry and Dr.
Manette escape from Paris.
- Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine in place
of Charles Darnay, satisfied that he has saved
Lucie and her family.

7. Characters & a. Dr. Alexandre Manette : Lucie’s

Rizky Allivia | 16202241042

characterization father, a brilliant physician, kind, helpful, wise and

respected.
Minor character
b. Lucie Manette : a daughter of Dr.
Manette, beautiful, kind, wise, friendly, loyal and
faithful to her husband.
c. Sydney Carton : an Englishman,
young, sloppy, brilliant lawyer, alcoholic, self-
indulgent, self-pitying, kind and willing to
sacrifice.
d. Charles Darnay : a French
language and literature teacher, wealthy, kind,
patient, honest and responsibility.
e. Jarvis Lorry : a manager at
Tellson’s Bank, kind, loyal, helpful and wise.
f. Monsieur Ernest Defarge : an owner of wine-
shop, loyal, cares, brave, and firm.
g. Madame Therese Defarge : cold, someone who
bears a grudge, obsessed with revenge against the
Evremondes, arrogant, spiteful, and cruel.
h. Miss Pross : loyal, kind, brave,
she loves lucie so much.
i. Mr. Stryver : a counsel of
Charles Darnay, kind, loyal, helpful.
j. Jerry Cruncher : a porter of
Tellson’s bank, helpful and kind.
k. John Barsad : he’s a spy, Miss
Pross’s brother, helpful, bad manner.
l. Marquis St. Evremonde : pitiless,
arrogant, French aristocracy.

8. Summary

In 1775, Mr. Jarvis Lorry, an official of Tellson's Bank in London, accompanies Lucie
to Paris. He has information that her father, Dr. Manette, who had disappeared
eighteen years ago, is alive. He had been wrongfully imprisoned in the Bastille and
left there to die. On reaching Paris, they go to the house of Monsieur Defarge, a wine-
seller. He had been Dr. Manette's servant and has taken care of him after his release
from prison. Both Mr. Lorry and Lucie are shocked to see the terrible state Doctor
Manette is in. He has aged prematurely, having lost both his memory and his sense.
He spends his time making shoes. Mr. Lorry and Lucie take her father back to
London. With love and compassion, Lucie plans to nurse her father back to health and
sanity.
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Five years later, in 1780, a young Frenchman, named Charles Darnay, is accused of
being a traitor and a spy. Lucie and her father are reluctant witnesses for the
prosecution, as they had met him while travelling from Calais to Dover. Lucie stresses
the good qualities of the accused while imparting her testimony. The evidence against
him is overwhelming as the prosecution produces a number of witnesses who swear
that he is a spy. The onlookers, too, mentally condemn him and are waiting for the
death sentence to be pronounced. However, it is Sydney Carton, an advocate present
in the courtroom, who points out the resemblance between the prisoner and himself to
the defense lawyer Mr. Stryver. The jury thus realizes that it could be a case of
mistaken identity, and Darnay is acquitted.

Years pass, and both Darnay and Carton fall in love with Lucie Manette. Carton is a
lawyer who wastes his life in drinking and idling. Lucie has no interest in him,
instead, she marries Darnay. His uncle, the Marquis St. Evremonde, is a notorious
man renowned for his cruelty and callousness; he has lived the life of a profligate and
has no respect for human life. This is emphasized in two incidents that take place
while he drives home from a royal reception. He kills a child on the streets and
refuses to help a poor widow in need of a tombstone to mark her husband's grave.
That very night he is murdered in bed.
The French Revolution breaks out in all its fury with the storming of the Bastille.

In London, Darnay has been happily married to Lucie for eleven years, and they have
a beautiful daughter. On hearing that Gabelle, his steward in France, has been
erroneously arrested, Darnay secretly returns to Paris to save his faithful servant. He
is caught and imprisoned. On hearing of her husband's capture, Lucie, her daughter,
Dr. Manette, and Mr. Lorry rush to Paris to save him. Dr. Manette, himself a victim of
oppression, convinces the people of his son-in-law's innocence, and Darnay is
discharged. Madame Defarge, however, seeks personal revenge against the
Evremonde family, for the cruel Marquis had molested her sister and killed her
brother. Largely because of her, Darnay is re-arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.
There is no hope of saving him. Even the lives of Lucie and her daughter are in
danger as the hard-core revolutionaries, like the Defarges, would like to eliminate
anyone who has a connection with aristocracy.

The story ends when Sydney Carton decides to save Darnay's life by taking his place.
He gains entry into the prison, drugs Darnay, and with the help of Mr. Lorry gets him
out of danger. The Darnay family flees back to England while Carton sacrifices his
life for Darnay, his look-alike. The sacrifice is made to fulfill a promise to Lucie
whom he loves. Carton feels noble about his action and knows that he will live in the
hearts of the Darnays forever.