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A Tale of Two Cities T HE G LENCOE L ITERATURE L IBRARY Study Guide for A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens i Meet Charles Dickens happy school days and the misery of his life in the factory gnawed at him, and he later wrote: “No words can express the secret agony of my soul. even now, famous and happy, I . wander deso- lately back to that time of my life.” Dickens’s childhood experiences made him all the more determined to succeed, and they also created in him a strong sympathy for the poor, which he never lost. His father’s continuing financial troubles pre- vented Dickens from attending school for very long. In 1827, when he was fifteen, he found work as a law clerk, a job he hated. In his spare time he studied on his own and taught himself to write shorthand. In seasons of pestilence, some of us will have a secret The serial publication of Pickwick Papers, attraction to the disease—a terrible passing inclination begun in 1836 and completed in 1837, made to die of it. And all of us have wonders hidden in our Dickens an overnight success. Other novels soon breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them. followed, and Dickens became the most popular author of his time. —from A Tale of Two Cities Dickens’s early novels, such as Oliver Twist, were filled with comic characters, gruesome vil- ike the age he described in the famous opening lains, and chatty, rambling narrators. The novels Lof A Tale of Two Cities, the life of Charles of his middle and late periods, such as Hard Dickens contained both the best of times and the Times, are much darker visions of Victorian soci- worst of times, its seasons of light and of darkness. ety and attack specific social problems. Two mas- Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, in terpieces, David Copperfield and Great 1812. His family was lower-middle-class; his Expectations, are somewhat autobiographical. His father was a clerk in a navy office. The Dickens two historical novels are Barnaby Rudge and A family moved often. When Dickens was five, his Tale of Two Cities. family settled in the village of Chatham, where Dickens and his wife had ten children but the young boy spent five happy years. When separated in 1858. Dickens threw himself into Dickens was ten, the family had to move to a causes such as improving education, and he fre- poor area of London because of his father’s fina- quently acted in plays. He also traveled widely, cial troubles. Two years later, Dickens’s father was often on reading tours that brought him wealth imprisoned for debt in London’s Marshalsea and created a special bond between himself and Prison, and the boy was sent to work in a shoe his readers. polish factory to earn money. In a building he The hectic pace of his life and his many Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. described later as a “crazy tumble-down old house responsibilities wore Dickens out. His health . on the river . literally overrun with rats,” failed during a reading tour in 1869, and he was he pasted labels on bottles of shoe blacking. forced to return home. The next year, while These events permanently affected Dickens, working on his final, unfinished novel, The and he returned to them often in his fiction. He Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens died. He is likened the dark, dank shoe polish factory to a buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey kind of living grave. The contrast between his and is celebrated as a national treasure. A Tale of Two Cities Study Guide 9 Introducing the Novel It was the best of times, it was the worst of Dickens’s own time, and it is his only book that times . it was the season of Light, it was the takes place mostly in a foreign country. More season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it importantly, the book lacks the huge comic was the winter of despair . gallery of whimsical and eccentric characters that —from A Tale of Two Cities made Dickens famous. There is no Scrooge, no Fagin, and no Mr. Pickwick. There is very little of With these famous words, Dickens begins A Tale the humor that made Dickens’s readers laugh, and of Two Cities. In 1859, the year in which A Tale of few of the touching sentimental episodes that Two Cities was published, Dickens was probably made them weep. the most popular author of his time. Instead, Dickens chose to make the plot the Dickens had grown increasingly dismayed at centerpiece of this novel. He called it “the best the social and economic inequality of British story I have written.” Critics have praised the way society––the terrible living conditions of the urban all the events relate to the progress of destiny. poor, an arrogant and uncaring ruling class, and Several of the characters are symbolic representa- the ravages of the Industrial Revolution. The nov- tions of ideas rather than real-life individuals. One els he wrote just before A Tale of Two Cities—Bleak such character does not even have a name. The House (1852–53), Hard Times (1854), and Little novel is rich in its detailed descriptions, its Dorritt (1855–57)—reflect his darker view of soci- panoramic sweep of history, and its suspense, mys- ety. While it was the best of times for England’s tery, and terror. It is not surprising that A Tale of wealthy, with their town homes and country Two Cities has been filmed so many times. estates, Dickens believed that times had never Dickens hoped to make the wider historical been worse for the nation’s poor. Hunger, disease, events of the French Revolution understandable poverty, and ignorance characterized the daily fab- by portraying the personal struggles of one group ric of their lives. Dickens had little hope that a of people. In the preface to the novel, however, social upheaval, like the one that shook France just he also gives readers a clue about the meaning the half a century earlier, could be avoided. book had in his personal life: Even though Dickens’s mind was troubled dur- Throughout its execution, it has had Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. ing this period of his life, all was not gloomy. He complete possession of me; I have so far had met and fallen in love with a young actress verified what is done and suffered in these named Ellen Ternan. She was a petite blonde- pages, as that I have certainly done and haired, blue-eyed woman whom scholars feel is the suffered it all myself. model for Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities. It is not hard to read into these lines Dickens’s own New beginnings––like the ones in Dickens’s life— feeling of being trapped by overwhelming duties became an important theme in A Tale of Two and responsibilities. But the lines may also express Cities. The title of the first book of A Tale of Two the liberating emotion Dickens felt at being, like Cities, “Recalled to Life,” probably had special Dr. Manette of the novel, “recalled to life.” meaning for Dickens in the late 1850s. The novel tells the story of people whose lives THE TIME AND PLACE are interrupted or wasted, then reawakened with a The action of A Tale of Two Cities takes place over new purpose. It shows how the mistakes of the a period of about eighteen years, beginning in 1775 past and the evil they cause can be turned into tri- and ending in 1793. Some of the story takes place umphs through suffering and virtuous actions. earlier, as told in the flashback. A flashback Stylistically, A Tale of Two Cities was some- reveals something that happened before that point thing new for Dickens. Unlike most of his in the story or before the story began. It provides novels, the book is not set in the England of information to help explain key events in the story. 10 A Tale of Two Cities Study Guide In A Tale of Two Cities, the key events take and the English port city of Dover. The novel— place just before and during the French Dickens’s twelfth—was published in the author’s Revolution. The novel is set mostly in London new magazine, All the Year Round, from April to and Paris, with some chapters set in rural France November 1859, and in book form the same year. Did You Know? The French Revolution was one of the most Wars raged for six years. The French govern- important events of the 1700s, and its influ- ment had many problems to deal with, includ- ence was still strong in Charles Dickens’s ing opposition from some French citizens. In time. The revolution began in 1789 with the 1799 attack on the notorious prison, the Bastille— certain political leaders plotted to overthrow a key event in A Tale of Two Cities. the current government. They chose the Throughout the revolution’s different phases, French general Napoleon Bonaparte to help various elected bodies ruled France, but none them. Bonaparte quickly took power and enjoyed total support of the people. Several crowned himself emperor a few years later. forces resorted to terrorism to defeat their Though historians may disagree on some political opponents. points, they generally cite five reasons why In addition to national turmoils, France the revolution occurred: France could not pro- was struggling with other countries in Europe.
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