Darney returned to England. Here he was convicted of spying for France. Lucie Manette was one of the witnesses as she was traveling with him in the ferry while coming back from France. Mr. Carton was Mr. Lorry’s assistant and he helped a lot in proving the innocence of Darney.
Darney went on to fall in love with Lucie and marry her. They had a baby girl. Mr. Carton became a good friend of theirs.
One day late at night Mr. Lorry came over to their house to tell them that the revolution had broken out in France. The revolution continued in France and the nobles were fleeing to England. One day Darney received a letter from one of his old servants who had served him with loyalty. He was being tried by the people for serving Marquis St. Evremonde and he pleaded for help. Darney made up his mind and decided that he had to go to Paris to help Gabelle, his faithful servant. He wrote a letter to Dr. Manette and Lucie and then made his way towards Paris. In the journey at every town he was checked. He was fine until just before Paris at a checkpoint he was arrested by Defarge and put into jail for being an immigrant.
When Dr. Manette received Darney’s letter he immediately decided to go to France. Dr. Manette, Miss Pross, Lucie and her child went to Paris. They met Mr. Lorry who was in Paris on business. A small crowd had gathered outside the office. Dr. Manette went out and using his influence as a prisoner of the Bastille he convinced the crowd that Charles Darney was innocent. He went to the Bastille and stayed with Charles and sent notes back to Mr. Lorry until the fourth day when he came back. He told Lucie there was a spot from where Darney could see her.
Darney’s trial was held ten years later. Dr. Manette and Defarge were able to convince jury that Darney was innocent and they got him home. But he was soon re-empoisoned. His trial was held again. Dr. Manette and Defarge tried their best to prove him innocent but they were not able to succeed. Madame Defarge influenced the jury and Darney was sentenced to death.
Once again Mr. Carton helped Darney. Carton and Darney had a striking resemblance. Carton told Darney to wear his clothes and give him his own. Then Carton told him to go back and there would be a carriage waiting for him to go to London.
In the afternoon Carton was executed instead of Darney.
I was most influenced by the character of Dr. Manette. He embodies the suffering of the poor people of France. For 18 years he is imprisoned in the Bastille by Marquis St. Evremonde. His only fault was that he helped two of Marquis’s servants who had been beaten up mercilessly by the Marquis. For 18 years he suffered because of the whim of one nobleman. Fortunately he was released from the Bastille and reunited with his daughter Lucie. Once in England, Dr. Manette returned to his medical practice. From then on he supported his daughter in every calamity that came her way after she married Charles Darney, the nephew of Marquis St. Evremonde. Though Charles Darney had relinquished his title and all his estates in France, the Revolutionaries still saw him as an aristocrat. Dr. Manette silently and solidly stood behind his daughter through all the storms that wrecked her life.
In this novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ which was written in 1859, Charles Dickens disdains royalty and sides with the poor people of the third estate of France. This is not surprising, since Dickens himself came from a very poor family and had to work very hard as a boy. In this book Charles Dickens has given a wide description of The French Revolution. He brings out the sharp contrast between the life of the rich Aristocracy and the poor masses in a manner that makes it easy to understand the reasons for the revolution. He also depicts how brutal the revolutionaries were in implementing their revenge as they killed Marquis St. Evremonde and then wanting to execute his nephew.
On the reading of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, the era of the French Revolution became easy for me to imagine and visualize.
The names of a few novels written about the French Revolution are:-
- A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
- Hard Times – Charles Dickens
- Notre Dame de Paris – Victor Hugo
- Les Misérables − Victor Hugo
- The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy
- The Triumph of Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
- The Way of Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
- Eldora do − Baroness Orczy
- Lord Tony’s Wife − Baroness Orczy
- Sir Percy Hits Back − Baroness Orczy
- Sir Percy Leads the Band − Baroness Orczy
- Mam’zelle Guillotine − Baroness Orczy