Complete Summary and Character List of A Tale of Two Cities
Complete Summary and Character List of "A Tale of Two Cities"
It is the year 1775. Dickens begins the novel by describing this year with one of the most famous sentences in literature: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of timesŠ" In short, despite the rapturous joy or painful suffering that everyone seems to feel, the time is really no less different than our own. It is filled with people who think "in the superlative degree of comparison only," and who believe that the world is not going to change. The narrator describes the goings-on in England and France. In England, ghost sightings and prophets holding seances are common. Highwaymen by night live as honest tradesmen by day, and thieves run rampant. In France, people are tortured for not paying homage to monks walking fifty yards away, and already there are rumblings of the terrible time that is to come. In short, the kings and queens of both countries rule, while the world of the commoners continues beneath them.
On a misty Friday night in November, a mail-coach lumbers up a hill on the road to Dover. Three passengers trudge in the mud behind it, with one passenger flinching each time the coach rattles. The guard and coachman both complain that it is late, and the coach cannot go any faster. Suddenly they hear a horse coming at full gallop. Everyone is frightened as the guard calls out to the mystery man. In a hoarse voice, the horseman asks for Mr. Jarvis Lorry. Lorry identifies the voice as Jerry. When the guard shows some apprehension, Mr. Lorry states that he is from Tellson's Bank in London, and there is nothing to fear. Jerry gives Lorry the message "Wait at Dover for Mam'selle." Lorry gives the reply, "Recalled to life," and sends Jerry on his way. After a few moments, the guard and coachman wonder what the conversation means. Meanwhile, Jerry rides back, hoping that "recalling to life" doesn't become fashionable.
The narrator begins with some musings on how human hearts have secrets buried within, and we can never see anyone else's except our own. From there, he moves to the passengers, who are all suspicious of each other. Next he gives us a description of the shaggy-haired Jerry, who rides into town, murmuring that recalling to life will ruin his profession. Back in...