Resurrection And Redemption

Margaret Atwood pauses at the end of Book One of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities to sort out what we know. It's 1775, Dr. Manette has spent 18 years in the Bastille and believes he's a shoemaker, and 17-year-old Lucie, raised by Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, has the job of nursing him back to sanity. Atwood sizes up the Defarges too: Ernest the muscle, Madame the brains, stout and calm for now. The tiger, she says, will be let out of its cage.

Then the reading instructions. Watch for digging, dirt and dusty roads, and for Jerry Cruncher's double life. Watch the shadows, because Atwood calls this Dickens's most nocturnal book, and the blood, because it's also his most blood-soaked. She previews Book Two's treason trial, placed carefully in 1780, and asks a pointed question about Charles Darnay: is he too good to be true? Sydney Carton arrives as his messier, immoral twin, and the Marquis as everything rotten in the Ancien Régime.

Transcript

Welcome back to A Tale of Two Cities. We're into the story now. What do we know?

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair."

It's 1775, the year that the American Revolution began, but 14 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution. We know that someone has been recalled to life, as Dickens puts it. He is young Lucie's father, Dr. Manette, who has been secretly imprisoned in the Bastille for the past 18 years, before Lucie was born. Solitude has driven him crazy. He thinks he's a shoemaker, but it will be Lucie's job to nurture him back to sanity.

Lucie is about 17. She has believed herself to be an orphan, her mother having died. She has been under the care of two important characters: Mr. Lorry, a banker who acts as a messenger and conveyor; it is he who brought Lucie from France as a baby. And Miss Pross, wild in appearance and strong-handed, who loves Lucie like a mother. Lucie, beautiful, delicate, feminine, nurturing, prone to fainting and clingy, is the mid-Victorian ideal of womanhood. What will she grow up to be?

And we have met the Defarges now. Ernest Defarge, the muscle, and Madame Defarge, the brains. She is described as stout at this point, also calm and secretive. Remember, this is 14 years before the actual revolution, but keep an eye out for her knitting and her behavior in the coming pages. She is going to change. The tiger will be let out of its cage and it will roar.

Look for repeated motifs in these opening pages and the pages ahead. Look out for digging. Note Jerry Cruncher, who leads a double life: trusted bank manager by day, something more muddy by night. Watch for dirt, clay, the ground, digging, and walking on dusty roads. While we're at it, think about night and dark interiors and shadows. This is perhaps Dickens's most nocturnal and darkest book.

And, too, think about blood, about the ways that it can be spilled, by whom and for what causes. Also, bloodlines matter a great deal: the Manettes, the Defarges, the Evrémonde family of the aristocracy. Think about wine and blood, and blood as wine. This is Dickens's most blood-soaked book.

Now let's turn to the plot in the pages ahead. Book Two, the most event-filled section of the book. It kicks off with a case of alleged treason that will be very important. This is historical fiction, and Dickens is careful to place this case historically in 1780, while the American Revolution is ongoing and France has taken the American side.

During the law case, we will meet the accused, Charles Darnay. When you do meet him, maybe just ask yourself, do I like this man? Do I admire him? Is he too good to be true? Lucie is forced to give evidence against him, against her will. This is a device that Dickens will repeat later in a major key. You'll also meet Sydney Carton, a dissolute lawyer on Darnay's side of the case.

What a wonderful, complex character. He looks a lot like Charles Darnay. Let's say he's the messier, immoral twin. He's an alcoholic who feels he's wasted his life, but he's very smart, and almost carelessly, he saves Darnay's life. In the court scene, we will meet two spies who've obviously been paid by someone to set Darnay up and lie about him. They come in later. And we will also meet the Marquis, the aristocratic character who represents all that is rotten in the Ancien Régime of France: privilege, pride, heartlessness, scorn for ordinary people, and war.

Now let's do some reading. Forge ahead and I will see you shortly.