TALE OF TWO CITIES - WEEK 2 - BOOK 1 CHAPTERS 1-4

A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens

Woohoo! It's our first discussion day on A Tale of Two Cities. If you're like me, your first experience with this book may have been in a high school College English Class. I remember enjoying the book, the intricacies of the plot and the story telling ability of a true master author, but reading it now, I am blown away. My goal is to share some of that amazement with you. So, here goes!

Let's start by keeping things simple. You may have read your four chapters and understood every word. You may have read the chapters and walked away feeling as if you understood nothing. Do not let that discourage you. I have two things to say. (1) Look for one thing in each chapter that you know happened, and (2) know that there are three things going for you in this book. The first is that there are lots of threads happening and as you start to realize one thing, something will build upon it. Two, the more you immerse yourself into the book, the more you'll get used to the voice telling it and the language used. Three, I've got your back! I'm going to come alongside and write about what is happening.

I would really love to hear about what you noticed in the chapters. What caught your attention? What caused you to gasp? Did you find the language and descriptions beautiful? Were you horrified by anything that you read? Did you imagine yourself in the shoes of any of the characters? If you have a minute add a comment to the Facebook post, and let's get some discussion going! I write some of my thoughts right into the Chapter break downs.

CHAPTER 1-

The opening lines of this classic are some of the most recognizable in literature. Google "most well known opening lines of books," and you'll see these appear alongside Dickens' name. Why open like this? Because it catches our attention. This list of opposites (paradoxes) has us asking how it's possible for things to be on such polar opposites at the same time, but it is for many reasons. This book is constantly comparing situations and people, and the opening paragraph sets the groundwork for us immediately. The title alone tells us that there is a comparison going on, right? A Tale of TWO Cities. We'll be heavily comparing two social classes - one that was experiencing the best of everything at the expense of the other (and what that other did about it). But Dickens does something unexpected. He compares the past to what is going on his current Victorian society. He says, "in fact, the period was so far like the present period..." Extreme contrasts to the superlative degree were still going on. Just a thought, but do you think this applies to us today?

We learn that the two cities being compared are England and France.

ENGLAND

• fixated on strange spiritual happenings/beliefs

• they're on the doorstep of the American Revolution - England's revolution will happen outside it's borders, while France will bear the bloodshed within its borders

• lawlessness abounds - when England does punish criminals it treats them all the same no matter the severity of what has been committed

FRANCE

• printing and spending money in massive amounts

• not as "spiritual" as England, but quick to punish harshly those that don't obey as expected to (example of the young man tortured to death that didn't kneel for the monks that passed in front of him 50-60 yards away)

But then we have this little allegory show up about France. The metaphorical picture of Fate as a Woodman and Death as a Farmer. Their actions foreshadow what is about to take place in the Revolution. For the Woodman everything is set in motion. It is Fate, the wheels are moving forward and there's no stopping what's about to happen. In this case, the trees are growing and being cut into boards for the guillotine. The Farmer is Death, and the tumbrils (carts) he uses for all of his chores will soon be used to carry people to their death.

CHAPTER 2 -

I love how this chapter is laced through and through with strong mood setting words and actions. There is a feeling of fear (beating hearts, agitation of the coach, etc), uncertainty, and foreboding as a mail carriage makes it way through the night. Can you feel it? It's fall, the passengers have wrapped themselves up so much in their clothing they are unrecognizable to each other (tuck that away in your mind. We're going to revisit this fact in a later chapter.) Dickens threads in beautiful description - similes coupled with personification like "there was a steaming mist in all the hollows , and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none." I just drink this stuff in. Description doesn't get much better than that. Remember from Chapter 1, there is the fear of highway men. It's at this moment that the coachman and his guard hear the sound of rapidly approaching hoofbeats, and a voice calls out asking if one of the passengers is a man named Jarvis Lorry. A man affirms in a quavering voice that he is Lorry and wants to know if it's Jerry who calls out to him. (Again, tuck this in your brain as we'll see Jerry again!) It is, and he brings a message from Tellson's Bank. Lorry opens the message and reads it. It instructs him to "wait at Dover for Mam'selle." He responds to the messenger with an odd answer "RECALLED TO LIFE."

CHAPTER 3 -

Dickens interjects himself here. He tells us that no matter our station in life, we all have secrets. Why does he do this? Because he tells us that it's true of the three passengers in the mail coach, and we, as readers, can relate to that immediately. This chapter focuses on Mr. Lorry and the secret he carries, but later we'll take a look at who one of the other passengers might be.

Lorry is a banker at Tellson"s and as the carriage moves with all its sounds, he finds himself mentally back in the bank .The harness rattles are the "chink of money," and he walks himself mentally into the deep vaults that he is familiar with that house customers' valuables and secrets. He knows it is secure. It's this picture of vaults and deep secrets that leads us to shocking statement. Lorry is on his way to dig someone out of a grave. Is this a real grave? Is he really going to exhume a dead body that has been buried for 18 years? No. This person isn't dead. He's been buried alive - imprisoned and hidden away for 18 years. Lorry begins the mental game of speaking to the ghost in his mind. He asks him about being "recalled to life," and if he "cares to live,' and then he asks the ghost about "seeing her." The ghost responds in a variety of ways. Sometimes he's ready to return to life and to see her, and sometimes the very thought of it would kill him. Notice two things as the chapter comes to an end. It is morning. The sun is rising. The darkness is being chased away. However. the sun is also rising on the tilled field and a little grouping of trees Remember our Farmer and Woodsman in Chapter 1?

CHAPTER 4 -

The carriage arrives at the Royal George, and it's here that Dicken's gives us a good look at Lorry physically. I'm going to sum it up by saying he looks like a banker. HIs clothes are in order, his wig, etc. The one thing that is a bit out of place is his bright eyes that he has to work on keeping subdued for his industry. The part I honestly loved the most out of this was the description of how he handles the cares of people in his job. He wears them like second-hand clothing - easily on and off. The work doesn't weigh him down. However this time he has a very unique job to do, and it begins with the meeting of a young woman.

Miss Manette is a pretty, seventeen-year- old young woman. She is an orphan and lives in England, but Lorry remembers holding her as a child crossing the English Channel from France. What in the world is going on? Lorry starts the conversation with Miss Manette by telling her a story that she quickly realizes is about her father, Dr. Manette. Lorry met him through banking business 20 years ago. She believes both her father and mother are dead, Her father passing 18 years ago, and her mother a couple years after that from a broken heart, but Lorry has come to deliver some extremely shocking news. Her father is not dead. He has been imprisoned all these years and has just been released. Lorry needs her help to bring her father back to life after being shut away for so long. They need to get him out of France and into England.

Okay! This is where we stop our discussion for this week! Hopefully, you are intrigued about what is going on. Get ready, because there is so much more coming! I can't wait to hear your thoughts!