A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (best young adult book series .TXT) ๐
Description
A doctor is released from the Bastille after being falsely imprisoned for almost eighteen years. A young woman discovers the father sheโs never known is not dead but alive, if not entirely well. A young man is acquitted of being a traitor, due in part to the efforts of a rather selfish lout who is assisting the young manโs attorney. A man has a wine shop in Paris with a wife who knits at the bar. These disparate elements are tied together as only Dickens can, and in the process he tells the story of the French Revolution.
Charles Dickens was fascinated by Thomas Carlyleโs magnum opus The French Revolution; according to Dickensโ letters, he read it โ500 timesโ and carried it with him everywhere while he was working on this novel. When he wrote to Carlyle asking him for books to read on background, Carlyle sent him two cartloads full. Dickens mimicked Carlyleโs style, his chronology, and his overall characterization of the revolution; although A Tale of Two Cities is fiction, the historical events described are largely accurate, sometimes exactly so. Even so, Dickens made his name and reputation on telling stories full of characters one could be invested in, care about, and despise, and this novel has all of those and more. It also, in its first and last lines, has two of the most famous lines in literature. With the possible exception of A Christmas Carol, it is his most popular novel, and according to many, his best.
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- Author: Charles Dickens
Read book online ยซA Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (best young adult book series .TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Charles Dickens
Madame Defarge cast down her eyes, and reflected a little.
โThe child also,โ observed Jacques Three, with a meditative enjoyment of his words, โhas golden hair and blue eyes. And we seldom have a child there. It is a pretty sight!โ
โIn a word,โ said Madame Defarge, coming out of her short abstraction, โI cannot trust my husband in this matter. Not only do I feel, since last night, that I dare not confide to him the details of my projects; but also I feel that if I delay, there is danger of his giving warning, and then they might escape.โ
โThat must never be,โ croaked Jacques Three; โno one must escape. We have not half enough as it is. We ought to have six score a day.โ
โIn a word,โ Madame Defarge went on, โmy husband has not my reason for pursuing this family to annihilation, and I have not his reason for regarding this Doctor with any sensibility. I must act for myself, therefore. Come hither, little citizen.โ
The wood-sawyer, who held her in the respect, and himself in the submission, of mortal fear, advanced with his hand to his red cap.
โTouching those signals, little citizen,โ said Madame Defarge, sternly, โthat she made to the prisoners; you are ready to bear witness to them this very day?โ
โAy, ay, why not!โ cried the sawyer. โEvery day, in all weathers, from two to four, always signalling, sometimes with the little one, sometimes without. I know what I know. I have seen with my eyes.โ
He made all manner of gestures while he spoke, as if in incidental imitation of some few of the great diversity of signals that he had never seen.
โClearly plots,โ said Jacques Three. โTransparently!โ
โThere is no doubt of the Jury?โ inquired Madame Defarge, letting her eyes turn to him with a gloomy smile.
โRely upon the patriotic Jury, dear citizeness. I answer for my fellow-Jurymen.โ
โNow, let me see,โ said Madame Defarge, pondering again. โYet once more! Can I spare this Doctor to my husband? I have no feeling either way. Can I spare him?โ
โHe would count as one head,โ observed Jacques Three, in a low voice. โWe really have not heads enough; it would be a pity, I think.โ
โHe was signalling with her when I saw her,โ argued Madame Defarge; โI cannot speak of one without the other; and I must not be silent, and trust the case wholly to him, this little citizen here. For, I am not a bad witness.โ
The Vengeance and Jacques Three vied with each other in their fervent protestations that she was the most admirable and marvellous of witnesses. The little citizen, not to be outdone, declared her to be a celestial witness.
โHe must take his chance,โ said Madame Defarge. โNo, I cannot spare him! You are engaged at three oโclock; you are going to see the batch of today executed.โ โYou?โ
The question was addressed to the wood-sawyer, who hurriedly replied in the affirmative: seizing the occasion to add that he was the most ardent of Republicans, and that he would be in effect the most desolate of Republicans, if anything prevented him from enjoying the pleasure of smoking his afternoon pipe in the contemplation of the droll national barber. He was so very demonstrative herein, that he might have been suspected (perhaps was, by the dark eyes that looked contemptuously at him out of Madame Defargeโs head) of having his small individual fears for his own personal safety, every hour in the day.
โI,โ said madame, โam equally engaged at the same place. After it is overโ โsay at eight tonightโ โcome you to me, in Saint Antoine, and we will give information against these people at my Section.โ
The wood-sawyer said he would be proud and flattered to attend the citizeness. The citizeness looking at him, he became embarrassed, evaded her glance as a small dog would have done, retreated among his wood, and hid his confusion over the handle of his saw.
Madame Defarge beckoned the Juryman and The Vengeance a little nearer to the door, and there expounded her further views to them thus:
โShe will now be at home, awaiting the moment of his death. She will be mourning and grieving. She will be in a state of mind to impeach the justice of the Republic. She will be full of sympathy with its enemies. I will go to her.โ
โWhat an admirable woman; what an adorable woman!โ exclaimed Jacques Three, rapturously. โAh, my cherished!โ cried The Vengeance; and embraced her.
โTake you my knitting,โ said Madame Defarge, placing it in her lieutenantโs hands, โand have it ready for me in my usual seat. Keep me my usual chair. Go you there, straight, for there will probably be a greater concourse than usual, today.โ
โI willingly obey the orders of my Chief,โ said The Vengeance with alacrity, and kissing her cheek. โYou will not be late?โ
โI shall be there before the commencement.โ
โAnd before the tumbrils arrive. Be sure you are there, my soul,โ said The Vengeance, calling after her, for she had already turned into the street, โbefore the tumbrils arrive!โ
Madame Defarge slightly waved her hand, to imply that she heard, and might be relied upon to arrive in good time, and so went through the mud, and round the corner of the prison wall. The Vengeance and the Juryman, looking after her as she walked away, were highly appreciative of her fine figure, and her superb moral endowments.
There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances. But, imbued from her childhood with
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