The story in one page
In 1775, elderly banker Jarvis Lorry brings Lucie Manette to Paris to retrieve her father, who spent eighteen years in the Bastille losing his mind to shoemaking. Safely in London, they befriend Charles Darnay, an emigrant who has discarded his cruel French heritage, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant but self-loathing legal assistant. Their lives intersect with the Defarges, wine-shop owners in Saint Antoine whose thirst for justice turns into a bloodbath as the Revolution erupts. When Darnay is lured back to France and sentenced to the guillotine for the sins of his ancestors, Carton finds a way to redeem his wasted life through a final, deceptive sacrifice.
Who's who
- Sydney Carton
A cynical, alcoholic lawyer who finds redemption through a final sacrifice.
- Lucie Manette
The compassionate daughter whose love restores her father's shattered mind.
- Madame Defarge
A revolutionary leader who knits a coded death-list of aristocrats.
- Charles Darnay
A French nobleman who renounces his title only to face revolutionary justice.
- Dr. Alexandre Manette
A former Bastille prisoner who compulsively makes shoes to cope with trauma.
- Jarvis Lorry
An elderly, orderly man who maintains the accounts and affairs of the Manette family with rigid, lifelong devotion.
What it's really about
- Resurrection
- Characters are 'recalled to life' through love or sacrifice.
- Retribution
- Oppression breeds a mindless violence that consumes innocent and guilty.
Why it's memorable
- Madame Defarge quietly knitting names into a shroud while the wine-shop patrons talk of murder.
- A spilled cask of red wine staining the Paris streets, foreshadowing the coming blood of the Revolution.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
Sydney Carton smuggles a drugged Darnay out of prison and takes his place at the guillotine. As he faces the blade, he envisions a future where the Manette family thrives and remembers him as a hero.
For your book club
- Is Madame Defarge a villain or a natural consequence of centuries of aristocratic cruelty?
- How does the physical resemblance between Carton and Darnay drive the plot's themes of identity.