MACBETH - THE PLAY by shakespear

In a desert place during a thunderstorm, three witches conclude a meeting. They decide to
convene next on a heath to confront the great Scottish general Macbeth on his return from a war
between Scotland and Norway. As they depart, they recite a paradox that foreshadows events in
the play: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. In other words, what is perceived as good will be bad;
what is perceived as bad will be good.

While camped near his castle at Forres in the Moray province of northeastern Scotland, the
Scottish king, Duncan, receives news of the fighting from a wounded sergeant: Macbeth has
defeated and beheaded a turncoat rebel leader named Macdonwald and “fix’d his head upon our
battlements”. When the Norwegians launched a new assault, the sergeant says, Macbeth and
another general, Banquo, set upon their foes like lions upon hares. Ross, a Scottish lord, then
arrives to report the coup de grâce: Duncan’s forces have vanquished the Norwegians and a
Scottish defector, the thane (lord) of Cawdor1. The Scots extracted a tribute of ten thousand
dollars from the Norwegian king, Sweno, who is begging terms of peace. After ordering
Cawdor’s execution, Duncan decides to confer the title of the disloyal Cawdor on the heroic
Macbeth.
Meanwhile, on their way to the king’s castle, Macbeth and Banquo happen upon the three
witches, now reconvened in the heath, while thunder cracks and rumbles. The First Witch
addresses Macbeth as Thane of Glamis2, a title Macbeth inherited from his father, Sinel. When
the Second Witch addresses him as Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth is dumbfounded. (He has not yet
received news that the king has bestowed on him the title of the traitorous Cawdor.) The Third
Witch then predicts that Macbeth will one day become king and that Banquo will beget a line of
kings, although he himself will not ascend the throne. Macbeth commands the witches to explain
their prophecies, but they vanish. Shortly thereafter, other Scottish soldiers–Ross and Angus–
catch up with Macbeth and Banquo to deliver a message from the king: He is greatly pleased
with Macbeth’s battlefield valor and, says Ross, “He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of
Cawdor”. The almost immediate fulfillment of the Second Witch’s prophecy makes Macbeth
yearn for the fulfillment of the Third Witch’s prophecy, that he will become king. He begins to
think about murdering Duncan even though the prospect of committing such a deed “doth unfix
my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs”

After Macbeth presents himself before Duncan, the king heaps praises on the general for his
battlefield prowess and announces that he will visit Macbeth at his castle at Inverness. Macbeth
is in his glory, but his jubilation is tempered by the fact that the king’s son–Malcolm, Prince of
Cumberland–is heir to the Scottish throne.

Bursting with pride and ambition, Macbeth sends a letter home to his wife, Lady Macbeth,
informing her of the prediction of the witches, who “have more in them than mortal knowledge”,
that he will one day become king. Lady Macbeth immediately wonders why he should wait for
that “one day.” He could murder Duncan and gain the throne now. But she fears he lacks what it
takes to do the deed. She says that his nature “is too full ‘o the milk of human kindness / To
catch the nearest way [murder]. . .”. A messenger arrives to tell Lady Macbeth that King Duncan
will visit her and Macbeth that very night. Excited by the prospect of the king’s visit–and the
murderous reception he will receive–Lady Macbeth recites some of the most chilling and cold-
hearted lines in all of Shakespeare:

A messenger arrives to tell Lady Macbeth that King Duncan will visit her and Macbeth that very
night. When Macbeth arrives home, he and his wife read murder in each other’s eyes. After
Duncan arrives at Macbeth's castle with his sons and his entourage, Lady Macbeth greets the
king while Macbeth broods elsewhere in the castle. He is having second thoughts about the
murder plot. After the feast begins, Macbeth enters the dining hall, still ruminating about his
sinister plans. To kill a king is a terrible thing. His wife, who has been looking for him, follows
not far behind him. Macbeth, swayed, asks her: “If we should fail–?” She answers, “But screw
your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail”. She then lays out the plan. While the
king sleeps, she will ply his guards with “wine and wassail", enough to make them fall into deep
repose. Macbeth will then kill the king with the guards’ daggers and stain their clothing with
blood to cast suspicion on them.

After midnight, while King Duncan sleeps, Lady Macbeth gives the guards a nightcap of milk
and ale (called a posset) spiked with a drug. She then rings a bell signaling Macbeth that all is
ready. Before going into the king’s chamber, Macbeth hallucinates, seeing a dagger in mid-air
that leads him to the king’s bedside. After committing the murder, he tells Lady Macbeth that he
thought he heard a voice saying, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” and that he “shall
sleep no more”. Lady Macbeth attempts to hearten him, telling him not to dwell on “brainsickly”
things. When she notices that Macbeth is still carrying the bloodied daggers, she tells him to
return them to the king’s chamber and plant them on the guards as they had planned. But
Macbeth, guilt-stricken, cannot bring himself to return to the room. Lady Macbeth, still bold with
resolve, scolds him, then plants the daggers herself, smearing blood on the guards.

Early in the morning, two noblemen, Macduff and Lennox, call at the castle to visit Duncan. “O
horror, horror, horror!”, Madcuff exclaims upon entering Duncan’s chamber and discovering the
body.Macduff then awakens everyone, shouting, “Murder and treason!”. Before anyone can
investigate, Macbeth kills the guards, claiming their bloodied daggers are proof that they
committed the foul deed. Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, do not for a moment believe
Macbeth. However, fearing for their own lives, they flee Scotland–Malcolm for England and
Donalbain for Ireland. Because their hasty departure makes them appear guilty–Macduff
speculates that they may have bribed the guards to kill Duncan–the crown passes to the nearest
eligible kin, Macbeth. Duncan’s body is removed to Colmekill, a burial place for the kings of
Scotland.

But now that he is king, Macbeth cannot rest easy. He remembers too well the prophecy of the
witches that Banquo will father a kingly line. So Macbeth sends two hired assassins to murder
Banquo and his son Fleance as they travel to Macbeth’s castle (now the royal palace at Forres)
for dinner. Ambushing their prey, the assassins slay Banquo “with twenty trenched gashes on his
head” (3.4.32), the First Murderer tells Macbeth. But Fleance escapes. Just as the dinner begins,
one of the assassins reports the news to Macbeth. When Macbeth sits down to eat, the bloodied
ghost of Banquo appears to him but to no one else. Macbeth begins to act and speak strangely,
and one guest, Ross, says, “Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well”. But Lady Macbeth
entreats the guests to remain in their seats, for “my lord is often thus, / And hath been from his
youth. . . .The fit is momentary; upon a thought / He will again be well. . .”. After the ghost
vanishes, Macbeth regains himself and tells his guests that he has a strange infirmity “which is
nothing / To those that know me”. When Ross questions Macbeth about what he has seen, Lady
Macbeth says the king’s fit has grown worse, and she sends the guests away. Later, preoccupied
with the fear of being discovered, Macbeth begins to suspect that Macduff, who refused to attend
the feast, is onto him.When Macbeth meets with the witches again–this time in a cavern–they
conjure an apparition of an armed head that tells him he has good reason to fear Macduff. But
they also ease his fears when they conjure a second apparition, that of a bloody child, which tells
him that no one born of woman can harm him. A third apparition, that of a crowned child
holding a tree, tells him that no one can conquer him until Birnham Wood comes to
Dunsinane.After the meeting, Macbeth learns that Macduff is urging Duncan's son, Malcolm, to
reclaim the throne. In revenge, Macbeth has Macduff's wife and son murdered. When Macduff
hears the terrible news, he organizes an army to bring down Macbeth.Meanwhile, Lady
Macbeth's conscience–long absent earlier–now begins to torture her. She talks to herself and
hallucinates, imagining that her hands are covered with blood. After the forces of Malcolm and
Macduff arrive at Birnham Wood and advance on Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth prepares for battle
just as Lady Macbeth's battle with her conscience ends in her suicide. As they advance, the
invaders cut branches of trees to hold in front of them as camouflage. Birnham Wood is coming
to Dunsinane–a hill near the castle–just as the witches predicted. Finally, Macbeth meets
Macduff in hand-to-hand combat, bragging that he will win the day because (according to the
apparition of the bloody child) no man born of a woman can harm him. However, Macduff
reveals that he was not of woman born but was “untimely ripp’d” from his mother’s womb (in a
cesarean birth). Macduff then kills Macbeth, and Malcolm becomes king.
Hamlet Play by shakespear
Outside Elsinore Castle in Denmark, a ghost starts haunting the night. The ghost bears a striking
resemblance to King Hamlet, who has recently died. The watchmen who discover the ghost show
Horatio, a friend of Prince Hamlet's, who suggests they show the prince. King Hamlet's ghost
tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother Claudius, and begs Hamlet to avenge his
murder. Claudius is currently the king, having married the former King Hamlet's wife Gertrude
and taken the throne.

Hamlet is determined to take revenge. However, he is mired in self-doubt and philosophical

reflection, and decides to pretend to be insane. His mother, Queen Gertrude, and his stepfather,
King Claudius, enlist two of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to discover what's
wrong.
Since Hamlet was previously interested in Ophelia, the daughter of King Claudius' right-hand
man Polonius, Polonius suspects that Hamlet may be mad with denied love. Claudius and
Polonius decide to spy on Hamlet while he talks to Ophelia, but he is cold and scornful toward
her, and women in general.

An acting troupe arrives at the castle. Hamlet decides to use the players to discover if Claudius is
truly guilty. He directs the actors to enact a play depicting the supposed events of King Hamlet's
murder, as told by the ghost. True to Hamlet's expectations, Claudius jumps up when the murder
is shown, and quickly leaves the room. Hamlet plans to kill Claudius, but when he finds him
praying, he changes his mind and decides to wait and kill him later. Meanwhile, Claudius has
decided that Hamlet is a threat and should be sent away to England.Soon after, Hamlet and his
mother Gertrude talk in her private room. He tells her about his suspicions and scolds her for her
disloyalty to his father, not realizing that Polonius is hiding behind the curtain. He hears a noise
and immediately stabs the intruder to death, believing it to be the King. After accidentally killing
Polonius, Hamlet is sent away to England immediately. However, the King has also secretly
arranged for Hamlet to be put to death in England, by sending sealed letters with his escorts
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Shortly after setting sail, they are attacked by pirates. Hamlet
manages to escape and return to Denmark. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue sailing for
England, unaware that Hamlet has switched out the sealed letters they carry with orders that they
be put to death instead.

Scorned by Hamlet and orphaned by Polonius' death, Ophelia loses her mind. Her brother Laertes returns
from France, determined to avenge the death of his father Polonius. His heartbreak and anger intensifies
when Ophelia drowns shortly after his return. Claudius convinces Laertes to seek his revenge against
Hamlet. Together they scheme to arrange a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet; however, Laertes
will switch his dull fencing sword for a sharp, poisoned sword, so he can kill Hamlet during the match. If
Hamlet wins, the King will supply a poisoned cup for Hamlet to drink from.
Shortly after returning to Denmark, Hamlet chances upon Ophelia's funeral and is stricken with grief,
insisting that he always loved her. Back at the castle, the sword-fighting match begins between Laertes
and Hamlet. Hamlet is initially winning. Queen Gertrude drinks to his success and is killed by the
poisoned cup. Meanwhile, Laertes wounds Hamlet. They scuffle and accidentally exchange swords, and
then Hamlet wounds Laertes. When Hamlet perceives that he, Laertes, and Gertrude have been poisoned,
he stabs Claudius with the poisoned blade and makes him drink the rest of the poisoned drink. Laertes
absolves Hamlet of guilt in his and Polonius' murder. Laertes, Hamlet, and the King all die within a few
minutes of one another.
Merchant of Venice play by shakespear
The play famous for the expression "a pound of flesh" and the lines, "If you prick us, do we not
bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us,
shall we not revenge?" begins in Venice with Antonio a wealthy merchant who is not happy
since he is worried about his business enterprises, namely his ships at sea which could be at peril
from rough seas or pirates.

Antonio's friend Bassanio owes Antonio money but unable to repay his debts, asks Antonio for
more money so he may marry the wealthy and beautiful Portia and so pay back his friend.
Antonio has no money to spare but tells Bassanio to use his good name to try to get a loan...

Meanwhile Portia laments that she has yet to find her special someone. She famously complains
about the faults of all her past suitors and her late father's will which chooses her husband for
her. Portia's father's will chooses Portia's husband by means of three caskets, one gold, one silver
and one lead. A suitor must choose one of the three caskets, a picture of Portia being contained in
the correct casket. When a suitor chooses a casket, he makes his worthiness to Portia clear, this
devise ensuring that only the right man for Portia will marry his daughter. Though Portia does
not like any of her past suitors, she does however, remember one man quite fondly, Bassanio...

Bassanio gets his loan of three thousand ducats from a Jewish merchant named Shylock. The
price for not repaying the debt is high, namely a pound of flesh from Antonio, but Antonio is not
worried. His ships (and wealth) come back a month before the debt is due...

The Prince of Morocco is willing to take the challenge set by Portia's father for Portia's hand in
marriage....
Meanwhile, Launcelot Gobbo, Shylock's servant has a problem; he hates his boss. Bassanio
arrives and after some conversation, Launcelot becomes Bassanio's new servant. Jessica,
Shylock's daughter plans to elope with Lorenzo against her father's wishes, were he to know.
Jessica reveals her shame for her father.

Lorenzo explains to his friends Gratiano, Lorenzo, Salarino and Salanio, how they will help him
help Jessica run away from her father.

Launcelot, Shylock's former servant delivers to Lorenzo a letter from Jessica explaining that
Jessica will be waiting at her house for Lorenzo and friends and that she has taken some of her
father's jewels and gold as well. The letter also explains that Jessica will be disguised as a boy to
aid her escape...

Shylock bumps into Launcelot, learning that Bassanio's party which he will reluctantly be
attending, will be a masque (masked ball). Shylock tells his daughter Jessica to stay at home and
to do her best to ignore the Christian revelries, which Shylock despises.
Jessica escapes from her father's house to live a new life as a Christian and as the wife of
Lorenzo. Jessica is embarrassed to be dressed as a boy. The masque (masked ball) is canceled
and Lorenzo and Jessica are to sail with Bassanio instead of attending the masque...
The Moroccan Prince undergoes the three-casket challenge for Portia's hand in marriage,
choosing the gold casket and losing. Salarino and Salanio comment that a ship has recently
floundered, hoping it is not one of Antonio's. We learn that Lorenzo and Jessica escaped
successfully from Shylock who was too late to prevent his daughter's escape. Shylock is furious
at having lost his daughter, his gold and his precious jewels to a Christian and knows that
Antonio was partially involved and swears revenge...
At Belmont, another suitor has arrived, The Prince of Arragon. Not blinded by the inscription on
the gold casket which bears the phrase, "Who chooseth [chooses] me shall gain what many men
desire" he instead chooses the silver casket which bears the inscription, "Who chooseth [chooses]
me shall get as much as he deserves."

Opening the silver casket, he finds a "portrait of a blinking idiot" mocking him and presenting a
schedule or letter to him which he reads and realizing he has lost, goes home in failure.
Shylock makes it clear that he no longer wants repayment of Bassanio's debt of three thousand
ducats. He would prefer his pound of flesh from Antonio instead since he now sees Antonio as
the source of all his miseries and reaffirms his desire to make Antonio pay for this...
Bassanio arrives to court Portia who is reluctant to never see Bassanio again should he fail the
casket challenge. Bassanio takes the challenge, choosing correctly. Bassanio will marry Portia
and it is revealed that Gratiano, Bassanio's friend, has fallen in love with Nerissa, Portia's maid
and so another marriage will also occur.
We learn from Salanio that Antonio has forfeited his debt to Shylock and now stands to lose a
pound of his flesh and with it his life for helping Bassanio. Portia enthusiastically offers to pay
Shylock Bassanio's debt twelvefold... Antonio pleads to let him pay back Bassanio's debt but
Shylock wants Antonio's pound of flesh and therefore his death instead...
Portia and Nerissa leave Belmont on a secret mission to save Antonio, disguising themselves as
men. In a garden at Portia's house, Launcelot believes Jessica to be damned telling her to "hope
that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew's daughter." Jessica replies that, "I shall be
saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian." Lorenzo arrives, engaging Launcelot in
witty banter.

The Duke of Venice attempts to convince Shylock to let Antonio pay back Bassanio's debt.
Shylock refuses, threatening the Duke that if he ignores their agreement, Venice will lose its
credibility as a place for merchants... Portia, now disguised as a man, defends Antonio, winning
his life, through the technicality defense that Shylock can take only a pound of flesh and no
more, a clearly impossible task. Furthermore she argues that Shylock has conspired to murder, an
offense that is punishable by asset confiscation and death. A compromise whereby Shylock must
become Christian and give half his assets to Jessica when he dies is reached. Portia ensures that
Shylock will sign a deed making the verdict binding. Gratiano meets Portia and gives her
Bassanio's ring. Nerissa tells Portia she too will get the ring of her husband. Portia resigns herself
to making both men regret their rash action.

Portia and Nerissa arrive back at Belmont before Bassanio, Antonio, Gratiano and their
followers, all of whom are unaware that it was Portia and Nerissa who defended them in Venice.
Nerissa and then Portia scold their husbands for giving away their wedding rings, an important
symbol of their love and fidelity to their two wives. Much comedy ensues as the two men
attempt to make excuses for this. Portia ends Bassanio's and Gratiano's suffering by producing a
letter which explains their role in Venice. The two men are embarrassed that they could not even
recognize their own wives
The Duel – book by tariq ali
At a time when Pakistan is sinking, with its economy tottering on the brink of bankruptcy and its
Talibanization spreading, the book raises fundamental questions about that country’s direction.
The London-based Tariq Ali is anything but optimistic about Pakistan’s ability to come to grips
with its existential challenges. Ali’s first Pakistan book had prophetically predicted the country’s
break-up just two years before East Pakistan seceded. His second study, published during
General Zial ul-Haq’s dictatorial rule, was titled, “Can Pakistan Survive?”, a question
provocative enough to prompt Islamabad to do what it did with his first book — ban it. Now, in
his third book, Ali raises the tantalizing question whether Pakistan can be “recycled”. By that he
means whether there could be a social and political revival in “a land of perpetual dictatorships
and corrupt politicians”.

More than six decades after it was created, Pakistan remains in search of a national identity. The
questions about its future indeed have become more pressing, with many wondering whether it
will be able to pull back from the brink. Between Ali’s second and third Pakistan books, the
country has gone from being a regional concern to being a threat to international security. Today,
Pakistan is disparaged as “Problemistan”, “Terroristan” and “Al Qaidastan”, with outgoing U.S.
President George W. Bush calling it “wilder than the Wild West”. By setting up state-run
terrorist complexes, Pakistan became its own enemy — and victim. The military’s domination of
the country — which Ali repeatedly brings out — has been shaken but not shrunk with the
installation of a civilian government following elections that the author says “were cautiously
rigged to deny any single party an overall majority”.

The book, however, is largely about America’s long-standing interventionist role in Pakistan that
has helped create, according to Ali, a “U.S.-backed politico-military elite” out of sync with the
masses. His thesis is that Pakistan’s problems today “are a direct result of doing Washington’s
bidding in previous decades”. To be sure, a succession of U.S. presidents, giving primacy to
narrow, short-term geopolitical interests, have helped fatten the very institution that constitutes
the core problem — the Pakistan military. Because the U.S. is distant, they thought the fallout of
their policies would be largely confined to the region. Then came the blowback from 9/11 and
the subsequent events — a reminder that U.S. policy would reap what it had sowed. But has U.S.
policy learned anything? As Ali reminds his readers, the U.S.-brokered deal with Benazir Bhutto
was really designed to help the despotic Pervez Musharraf stay on as president. The continuing
supply of offensive, India-directed weapon systems shows that U.S. policy remains wedded to
the Pakistani military because it employs Pakistan as a gateway to combat operations in
Afghanistan, a potential base against Iran and a vehicle for other geopolitical objectives.

But can all of Pakistan’s ills be blamed on U.S. policy? The book is less clear on that score. In its
61-year history, Pakistan has already had four military takeovers and four Constitutions.
Benazir’s murder was a horrific reminder that unravelling Pakistan’s jihad culture won’t be easy
but is essential. Neither the war on international terror can be won nor Afghanistan be pacified
without de-radicalizing Pakistani society and truly democratizing its polity. Ali argues Pakistan
needs to break free from U.S. “satrapy”. But the next U.S. president is likely to pursue a more-
activist Pakistan policy. Political expediency will continue to guide U.S. policy, not long-term
considerations. For example, Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus wants to do in
Afghanistan what he has showcased in Iraq — buy up tribal warlords and insurgent leaders.
Disregarding the fact that the Taliban ideology poses a bigger long-term threat than even Al
Qaeda, Petraeus has said he is looking for ways to negotiate with and co-opt local Taliban
chieftains. India will be left to bear the brunt of an enduringly Talibanized Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

Ali, as a gutsy, forthright writer, has written an engrossing account of Pakistan’s travails since
birth. The book’s main failing is its poor structure, with some sections disjointed and arguments
rambling. Besides better editing, it could have benefited from fact-checking to eliminate
mistakes like the “1959 India-China war”. Yet, this book will rank as one of the most-objective
accounts of Pakistan’s troubled history.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES By CHARLES DICKENS

On a cold November night, in the year 1775, the English mail-coach, on its way from London to
Dover, was carrying among its passengers a Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a London banker of the well-
known firm of Tellson & Co. As the coach stumbled along in the darkness, there arose before him
the vision of an emaciated figure with hair prematurely white. All night between him and the
specter the same words repeated them-selves again and again :
"Buried how long?"
"Almost eighteen years."
"I hope you care to live?"
"I can't say."

About eighteen years before the story opens, Doctor Manette, a prominent young physician of
Paris, had suddenly disappeared.

Everything was done to discover some trace of him, but in vain. The loss of her husband caused
his wife such anguish that she resolved to bring up her little daughter in ignorance of her father's
fate; and when in two years she died she left little Lucie under the guardian-ship of Tellson &
Co., to whose care Doctor Manette for many years had intrusted his financial affairs.

Strange tidings concerning the doctor had just come from Paris, and Mr. Lorry was on his way to
meet his ward and explain to her the facts of her early life. This was a duty from which the kind-
hearted banker shrank, and when he saw the slight, golden-haired girl who came to meet him his
heart almost failed him; but his task was accomplished at last.

"And now," concluded Mr. Lorry, "your father has been found. He is alive, greatly changed, but
alive. He has been taken to the house of a former servant in Paris, and we are going there. I, to
identify him, you to restore him to life and love."

The servant that sheltered Doctor Manette was a man by the name of Defarge who, with his wife,
kept a wine-shop in the obscure district of St.-Antoine. The banker and Lucie were taken to an
attic, where a haggard, white-haired man sat on a low bench, making shoes, a wreck of a man
oblivious of all around him.

Again was the Channel crossed, and again the old inquiry whispered in the ear of Jarvis Lorry :

"I hope you care to be recalled to life?" "I can't say."

Five years later, in the court-room of the Old Bailey in London, a young Frenchman was on trial
for his life. Near him sat an untidy looking individual by the name of Sydney Carton. With his
eyes fixed on the ceiling, he was unobservant, apparently, of all that passed around him; but it
was he, who first noticing the extraordinary resemblance between the prisoner and himself,
rescued Charles Darnay from the web of deceit which had been spun around him.
Between these two young men the striking resemblance was in outward appearance only. Charles
Darnay was of noble birth; but his ancestors had for many years so cruelly oppressed the French
peasantry that the name of Evremonde was hated and despised. Wholly unlike them in character,
this last descendant of his race had given up his name and estate and had come to England as a
private gentleman, eager to begin life anew.

Sydney Carton was a young English lawyer, brilliant in intellect, but steadily deteriorating
through his life of dissipation, able to advise others, but unable to guide himself, "conscious of
the blight on him and resigning himself to let it eat him away."

He and Darnay soon became frequent visitors at the small house in Soho Square, the home of
Doctor Manette and his daughter. Through Lucie's care and devotion, the doctor had almost
wholly recovered from the effects of his long imprisonment, and it was only in times of strong
excitement that any trace of his past insanity could be detected. The sweet face of Lucie Manette
soon won the hearts of both the young men, but it was Darnay to whom she gave her love.

And so that interview between Lucie and Sydney Carton has a pathos that wrings our hearts. He
knew that even if his love could have been returned, it would have added only to his bitterness
and sorrow, for he felt it would have been powerless to lift him from the Slough of Selfishness
and Sensuality that had engulfed him. But he could not resist this last sad confession of his love;
and when she weeps at the sorrow of which she had been the innocent cause, he implores: "Do
not weep, dear Miss Manette, the life I lead renders me unworthy of your pure love. My last
supplication is this, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life to keep a life
you love beside you."

But dark days were to come. In the year 1789 the downtrodden French peasantry turned upon
their oppressors. The streets of Paris were filled with crowds of people whose eager cry was for
"blood." Madame Defarge no longer sat behind the counter of her small wine-shop, silently
knitting into her work the names of her hated enemies, but, ax in hand and knife at her belt,
headed a frenzied mob of women on to the Bastile. The French Revolution had actually begun.

Madame Defarge was one of the leading spirits of the Revolution. Early in life she had seen her
family fall victims to the tyranny and lust of the cruel nobility, and from that time her life had
been devoted to revenge.

Three years of crime and bloodshed passed, and in 1792 Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Charles Darnay
landed in Paris, the former to pro- tect the French branch of Tellson 'Sr Co. and the latter to
befriend an old family servant who had besought his help. Not until they had set foot in Paris did
they realize into what a caldron of fury they had plunged. Mr. Lorry, on account of his business
relations, was allowed his freedom, but Darnay was hurried at once to the prison of La Force,
there to await his trial. The reason given for this outrage was the new law for the arrest of all
returning French emigrants, but the true cause was that he had been recognized as Charles
Evremonde.

These tidings soon reached London, and Doctor Manette, with his daughter Lucie, hastened to
Paris, for he felt sure that his long confinement in the Bastile would win for him the sympathy of
the French people and thus enable him to save his son-in-law. Days and months passed; and
although the doctor succeeded in gaining a promise that Darnay's life should be spared, the latter
was not allowed to leave his prison.

At last came the dreadful year of the Reign of Terror. The sympathy which at first had been given
to Doctor Manette had be-come weakened through the influence of the bloodthirsty Madame
Defarge. Also, there. had been found in the ruins of the Bastile a paper which contained Doctor
Manette's ac-count, of his own abduction and imprisonment, and pronouncing a solemn curse
upon the House of Evremonde and their descendants, who were declared to be the authors of his
eighteen years of misery. Charles Darnay's doom was sealed. "Back to the Conciergerie and death
within twenty-four hours."

To Sydney Carton, who had followed his friends to Paris, came an inspiration. Did he not
promise Lucie that he would die to save a life she loved? By bribery he gains admittance to the
prison; Darnay is re-moved unconscious from the cell, and Carton sits down to await his fate.

Along the Paris streets six tumbrels are carrying the day's wine to La Guillotine. In the third car
sits a young man with his hands bound. As the cries from the street arise against him, they only
move him to a quiet smile as he shakes more loosely his hair about his face.

Crash! A head is held up, and the knitting women who are ranged about the scaffold count "One."

The third cart comes up, and the supposed

Evremonde descends. His lips move, forming the words, "a life you love."

The murmuring of many voices, the up-turning of many faces, then all flashes away. "Twenty-
three!"

"`I am the resurrection and the life,' saith the Lord; `he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' "
Rise and Fall of Great Powers
by Paul Kennedy

Kennedy argues that the strength of a Great Power can be properly measured only relative to
other powers, and he provides a straightforward and persuasively argued thesis: Great Power
ascendency (over the long term or in specific conflicts) correlates strongly to available resources
and economic durability; military "over-stretch" and a concomitant relative decline are the
consistent threat facing powers whose ambitions and security requirements are greater than their
resource base can provide for.

Throughout the book he reiterates his early statement: "Military and naval endeavors may not
always have been the raison d'être of the new nations-states, but it certainly was their most
expensive and pressing activity", and it remains such until the power's decline.

Kennedy states his theory in the second paragraph of the introduction as follows.
The "military conflict" referred to in the book's subtitle is therefore always examined in the
context of "economic change." The triumph of any one Great Power in this period, or the
collapse of another, has usually been the consequence of lengthy fighting by its armed forces; but
it has also been the consequences of the more or less efficient utilization of the state's productive
economic resources in wartime, and, further in the background, of the way in which that state's
economy had been rising or falling, relative to the other leading nations, in the decades preceding
the actual conflict. For that reason, how a Great Power's position steadily alters in peacetime is as
important to this study as how it fights in wartime.
The book starts at the dividing line between the Renaissance and early modern history—1500 . It
briefly discusses the Ming and Muslim worlds of the time and the rise of the western powers
relative to them. The book then proceeds chronologically, looking at each of the power shifts
over time and the effect on other Great Powers and the "Middle Powers".

Kennedy uses a number of measures to indicate real, relative and potential strength of nations
throughout the book. He changes the metric of power based on the point in time. "The Habsburg
Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659" emphasizes the role of the "manpower revolution" in changing the
way Europeans fought wars (see military revolution). This chapter also emphasizes the
importance of Europe's political boundaries in shaping a political balance of power.
"The argument in this chapter is not, therefore, that the Habsburgs failed utterly to do what other
powers achieved so brilliantly. There are no stunning contrasts in evidence here; success and
failure are to be measured by very narrow differences. All states, even the United Provinces,
were placed under severe strain by the constant drain of resources for military and naval
campaigns... The victory of the anti-Habsburg forces was, then, a marginal and relative one.
They had managed, but only just, to maintain the balance between their material base and their
military power better than their Habsburg opponents."
The Habsburg failure segues into the thesis, that financial power reigned between 1660 and
1815, using Britain, France, Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and Russia to contrast between powers
that could finance their wars (Britain and France) and powers that needed financial patronage to
mobilize and maintain a major military force on the field. Kennedy presents a table of "British
Wartime Expenditures and Revenue"; between 1688 and 1815 is especially illustrative, showing
that Britain was able to maintain loans at around one-third of British wartime expenditures
throughout that period

The chapter also argues that British financial strength was the single most decisive factor in its
victories over France during the 18th century. This chapter ends on the Napoleonic Wars and the
fusion of British financial strength with a newfound industrial strength.

Kennedy's next two chapters depend greatly upon Bairoch's calculations of industrialization,
measuring all nations by an index, where 100 is the British per capita industrialization rate in
1900. The United Kingdom grows from 10 in 1750, to 16 in 1800, 25 in 1830, 64 in 1860, 87 in
1880, to 100 in 1900. In contrast, France's per capita industrialization was 9 in 1750, 9 in 1800,
12 in 1830, 20 in 1860, 28 in 1880, and 39 in 1900. Relative shares of world manufacturing
output (also first appearing on page 149) are used to estimate the peaks and troughs of power for
major states. China, for example, begins with 32.8% of global manufacturing in 1750 and
plummets after the Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion to 19.7% of global manufacturing in
1860, and 12.5% in 1880 (compared to the UK's 1.9% in 1750, growing to 19.9% in 1860, and
22.9% in 1880).

Measures of strength in the 20th century use population size, urbanization rates, Barioch's per
capita levels of industrialization, iron and steel production, energy consumption (measured in
millions of metric tons of coal equivalent), and total industrial output of the powers (measured
vs. Britain's 1900 figure of 100), to gauge the strength of the various great powers.

He compares the Great Powers at the close of the 20th century and predicts the decline of the
Soviet Union (the book was originally published on the cusp of the Soviet collapse, the
suddenness of which Kennedy did not predict), the rise of China and Japan, the struggles and
potential for the EEC, and the relative decline of the United States. He highlights the precedence
of the "four modernizations" in Deng Xiaoping's plans for China—agriculture, industry, science
and military—deemphasizing military while the United States and the Soviet Union are
emphasizing it. He predicts that continued deficit spending, especially on military build-up, will
be the single most important reason for decline of any Great Power.