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A Tale of Two Cities

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Part I

  1. Chapter 1Show recallHide recall
    • The year is 1775.
    • England and France combine confident rule with violence and disorder.
    • Fate and Death work silently while society remains unaware.
  2. Chapter 2Show recallHide recall
    • The Dover mail labors up Shooter’s Hill.
    • Jerry brings Lorry a message from Tellson’s Bank.
    • Lorry replies, “Recalled to life.”
  3. Chapter 3Show recallHide recall
    • The narrator calls every person a mystery to others.
    • Lorry dreams of digging out a man buried for almost eighteen years.
    • Daylight finds Lorry astonished by the idea of living burial.
  4. Chapter 4Show recallHide recall
    • Lorry meets Miss Manette at Dover.
    • She learns that her father is alive in Paris after long imprisonment.
    • Her attendant cares for her when the shock makes her faint.
  5. Chapter 5Show recallHide recall
    • Hungry residents gather spilled wine from the street.
    • Defarge leads Lorry and Miss Manette to a locked garret.
    • A white-haired man inside is making shoes.
  6. Chapter 6Show recallHide recall
    • Manette calls himself “One Hundred and Five, North Tower.”
    • Lucie’s presence draws out memory and tears.
    • The group leaves Paris, taking Manette and his shoemaking tools.

Part II

  1. Chapter 1Show recallHide recall
    • Five years have passed.
    • Tellson’s resists every improvement.
    • Young Jerry notices mud and iron rust connected with his father.
  2. Chapter 2Show recallHide recall
    • Darnay faces a treason charge.
    • Jerry delivers a note to Mr. Lorry.
    • The Manettes are witnesses.
  3. Chapter 3Show recallHide recall
    • Barsad and Cly testify against Darnay.
    • Carton’s resemblance disrupts an identification.
    • The jury acquits Darnay.
  4. Chapter 4Show recallHide recall
    • Carton takes Darnay to dinner.
    • Both men toast Lucie.
    • Carton sees in Darnay what he might have been.
  5. Chapter 5Show recallHide recall
    • Carton prepares Stryver’s cases.
    • Their unequal partnership began in school.
    • Carton’s imagined better life vanishes at dawn.
  6. Chapter 6Show recallHide recall
    • The shoemaking bench remains in Doctor Manette’s room.
    • Darnay’s dungeon story alarms him.
    • Lucie hears imagined future visitors in the echoes.
  7. Chapter 7Show recallHide recall
    • Four servants assist Monseigneur’s chocolate.
    • The Marquis’s carriage kills Gaspard’s child.
    • Someone throws the Marquis’s coin back.
  8. Chapter 8Show recallHide recall
    • A man was seen beneath the Marquis’s carriage.
    • A widow asks for a grave marker.
    • Charles has not yet reached the château.
  9. Chapter 9Show recallHide recall
    • Darnay is an Evrémonde and the Marquis’s heir.
    • He renounces the estate.
    • The Marquis is found stabbed, with a note from “Jacques.”
  10. Chapter 10Show recallHide recall
    • Darnay declares his love to Doctor Manette.
    • The Doctor postpones hearing Darnay’s secret.
    • Lucie hears her father shoemaking that night.
  11. Chapter 11Show recallHide recall
    • Stryver intends to marry Lucie.
    • He assumes she will accept.
    • Carton gives little away.
  12. Chapter 12Show recallHide recall
    • Lorry advises Stryver not to propose.
    • Soho confirms Lucie would refuse him.
    • Stryver pretends withdrawal was his own decision.
  13. Chapter 13Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie urges Carton to begin a better life.
    • He asks her to keep his confession secret.
    • He promises any sacrifice for her or those she loves.
  14. Chapter 14Show recallHide recall
    • The crowd disrupts Roger Cly’s funeral.
    • Young Jerry follows his father to the graveyard.
    • Jerry identifies his secret occupation as resurrection work.
  15. Chapter 15Show recallHide recall
    • Gaspard is hanged above the fountain.
    • The château’s destruction is entered in the register.
    • Defarge encourages the road-mender’s cheers at Versailles.
  16. Chapter 16Show recallHide recall
    • Madame Defarge registers Barsad.
    • Barsad reports Lucie’s coming marriage to Darnay.
    • Darnay’s family identity also enters the register.
  17. Chapter 17Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie promises continued devotion.
    • Manette describes imagining a daughter in prison.
    • He assures Lucie that her marriage makes him happy.
  18. Chapter 18Show recallHide recall
    • Darnay makes his promised disclosure.
    • Manette returns to shoemaking after the wedding.
    • The relapse lasts through the ninth evening.
  19. Chapter 19Show recallHide recall
    • Manette returns on the tenth morning.
    • He predicts no further relapse from the same cause.
    • Lorry and Pross destroy the bench and tools.
  20. Chapter 20Show recallHide recall
    • Carton asks to visit freely.
    • Darnay grants Carton unusual visiting privileges.
    • Lucie asks Darnay to treat Carton gently.
  21. Chapter 21Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie’s family experiences both a birth and a death.
    • Saint Antoine storms the Bastille.
    • Defarge searches Manette’s former cell.
  22. Chapter 22Show recallHide recall
    • Foulon is discovered alive and captured.
    • The crowd hangs him with grass in his mouth.
    • Saint Antoine returns home still hungry.
  23. Chapter 23Show recallHide recall
    • Four figures converge on the château.
    • The villagers let it burn.
    • Gabelle survives the night on his roof.
  24. Chapter 24Show recallHide recall
    • Lorry prepares to go to Paris.
    • Gabelle writes from prison for help.
    • Darnay secretly leaves England for France.

Part III

  1. Chapter 1Show recallHide recall
    • Checkpoints prevent Darnay from turning back.
    • Defarge refuses to send his message.
    • Darnay is confined alone in La Force.
  2. Chapter 2Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie’s party reaches Tellson’s in Paris.
    • Doctor Manette goes to help Darnay.
    • Crowds sharpen bloodied weapons in the courtyard.
  3. Chapter 3Show recallHide recall
    • Lorry moves the family out of Tellson’s.
    • Darnay sends word that he is well.
    • Madame Defarge memorizes Lucie and her household.
  4. Chapter 4Show recallHide recall
    • Manette protects Darnay during the prison massacres.
    • He gains an official role visiting prisons.
    • Darnay remains imprisoned for fifteen months.
  5. Chapter 5Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie waits where Darnay may see her.
    • The wood-sawyer observes her vigil.
    • Darnay is summoned for trial.
  6. Chapter 6Show recallHide recall
    • Darnay explains why he left and returned.
    • Gabelle confirms Darnay’s account.
    • The jury acquits him unanimously.
  7. Chapter 7Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie fears despite Darnay’s return.
    • Officials arrest Darnay a second time.
    • The Defarges and an unnamed third party accuse him.
  8. Chapter 8Show recallHide recall
    • Miss Pross’s brother is John Barsad.
    • Jerry reveals Cly’s coffin was empty of Cly.
    • Carton forces Barsad into a private negotiation.
  9. Chapter 9Show recallHide recall
    • Jerry promises to stop robbing graves.
    • Carton secures Barsad’s aid.
    • Manette’s Bastille paper becomes evidence against Darnay.
  10. Chapter 10Show recallHide recall
    • The Evrémonde brothers abduct Manette to treat two victims.
    • Manette is imprisoned after reporting their crimes.
    • The court condemns Darnay to die within a day.
  11. Chapter 11Show recallHide recall
    • Lucie and Darnay exchange a final farewell.
    • Carton carries the fainting Lucie away.
    • Manette makes one last appeal.
  12. Chapter 12Show recallHide recall
    • Carton overhears the threat to Lucie’s family.
    • Manette relapses after his appeal fails.
    • Lorry is told to prepare a two o’clock escape.
  13. Chapter 13Show recallHide recall
    • Carton drugs Darnay and exchanges clothes with him.
    • The seamstress discovers Carton’s sacrifice.
    • The escape carriage passes the city barrier.
  14. Chapter 14Show recallHide recall
    • Madame Defarge plans to denounce Lucie’s household.
    • Miss Pross prevents her from following the family.
    • A pistol shot kills Madame Defarge and deafens Miss Pross.
  15. Chapter 15Show recallHide recall
    • Carton comforts the seamstress in the final cart.
    • The seamstress dies before Carton.
    • The closing vision imagines the family preserving Carton’s name.