故事梗概

故事梗概
故事梗概

故事梗概
时间背景:
法国革命前夕
故事梗概:
1775年12月的一个月夜,寓居巴黎的年轻医生梅尼特散步时,突然被厄弗里蒙地侯爵兄弟强迫出诊.在侯爵府第中,他目睹一个发狂的绝色农妇和一个身受剑伤的少年饮恨而死的惨状,并获悉侯爵兄弟为了片刻淫乐杀害他们全家的内情.他拒绝侯爵兄弟的重金贿赂,写信向朝廷告发.不料控告信落到被告人手中,医生被关进巴士底狱,从此与世隔绝,杳无音讯.两年后,妻子心碎而死.幼小的孤女路茜被好友劳雷接到伦敦,在善良的女仆普洛斯抚养下长大.
18年后,梅尼特医生获释.这位精神失常的白发老人被巴黎圣安东尼区的一名酒贩、他旧日的仆人得伐石收留.这时,女儿路茜已经成长,专程接他去英国居住.旅途上,他们邂逅法国青年查理·代尔纳,受到他的细心照料.
原来代尔纳就是侯爵的儿子.他憎恨自己家族的罪恶,毅然放弃财产的继承权和贵族的姓氏,移居伦敦,当了一名法语教师.在与梅尼特父女的交往中,他对路茜产生了真诚的爱情.梅尼特为了女儿的幸福,决定埋葬过去,欣然同意他们的婚事.
在法国,代尔纳父母相继去世,叔父厄弗里蒙地侯爵继续为所欲为.当他那狂载的马车若无其事地轧死一个农民的孩子后,终于被孩子父亲用刀杀死.一场革命的风暴正在酝酿之中,得伐石的酒店就是革命活动的联络点,他的妻子不停地把贵族的暴行编织成不同的花纹,记录在围巾上,渴望复仇.
1739年法国大革命的风暴终于袭来了.巴黎人民攻占了巴士底狱,把贵族一个个送上断头台.远在伦敦的代尔纳为了营救管家盖白勒,冒险回国,一到巴黎就被捕入狱.梅尼特父女闻讯后星夜赶到.医生的出庭作证使代尔纳回到妻子的身边.可是,几小时后,代尔纳又被逮捕.在法庭上,得伐石宣读了当年医生在狱中写下的血书：向苍天和大地控告厄弗里蒙地家族的最后一个人.法庭判处代尔纳死刑.
就在这时,一直暗暗爱慕路茜的律师助手卡尔登来到巴黎,买通狱卒,混入监狱,顶替了昏迷中的代尔纳,梅尼特父女早已准备就绪,代尔纳一到,马上出发.一行人顺利地离开法国.
得伐石太太在代尔纳被判决后,又到梅尼特住所搜捕路茜及其幼女,在与普洛斯的争斗中,因枪支走火而毙命.而断头台上,卡尔登为了爱情,从容献身.
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centres on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look similar but are very different in personality. Darnay is a romantic French aristocrat, while Carton is a cynical English barrister. However, the two are in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette.
Other major characters in the book include Dr. Alexandre Manette (Lucie's father), who was unjustly imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for many years under a lettre de cachet, and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with a grudge against the Evrémonde family.
Plot summary
[edit] Book the First: Recalled to Life
Jarvis Lorry travels to Dover to meet a young woman, Lucie Manette, in 1775. When he arrives, he informs her that her father, Doctor Manette, whom she previously believed to be dead, has actually been incarcerated as a prisoner in Paris for the past eighteen years, and has recently been released by the French government. Tellson’s Bank is sending Lorry to identify the doctor (who had been one of Tellson’s clients) and bring him to England. The news upsets Lucie greatly; he tries to comfort her, but Miss Pross takes over when she fears he has frightened Lucie too much.
The story shifts abruptly to Saint Antoine, a suburb of Paris, where a cask of wine accidentally splits and spills on the ground. The poor seize the unexpected windfall, jubilantly drinking the wine off the street. Watching the degradation in disgust is Defarge, the owner of a wineshop and leader of a band of revolutionaries. Afterwards, she goes back into her shop and talks to a group of fellow revolutionaries, who call each other "Jacques".
Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette arrive and Defarge takes them to his apartment to see Dr. Manette. The doctor is, to all appearances, completely mad. He sits in a dark room all day making shoes, as he did while in prison. Lucie takes him to England.
[edit] Book the Second: The Golden Thread
Five years later (1780), Dr. Manette has recovered from his ordeal. French emigre Charles Darnay is tried at the Old Bailey for spying. Those testifying against him are a John Barsad and a Roger Cly, who claim that he had been reporting on English troops in North America to the French. Dr. Manette and his daughter vouch for Darnay because he had sailed with them on their voyage to England. In the end, Darnay is acquitted because the witnesses are unable to tell him apart from junior defense counsel Sydney Carton, who bears a striking resemblance to him. Carton is depicted unflatteringly as a drunkard; conversely Darnay is set out as a handsome, gallant victim of a deficient British legal process. Carton becomes enamoured with Lucie and jealous of Darnay.
In Paris, the Marquis St. Evrémonde, Darnay's uncle, is returning from an audience with Monseigneur, one of the 'greatest lords in France', when his coach runs over and kills the son of the peasant Gaspard; he throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss; in the assembled crowd is the implacable tricoteuse, Madame Defarge. She throws the money back, enraging the Marquis and leading him to exclaim that he would willingly kill any of the peasants of France.
On his way back to his château, the Marquis passes through a village, where a road mender tells him that he saw a man clinging to the bottom of his carriage. The Marquis has his servant investigate, but no one is found.
Darnay returns to France to meet his uncle. Their political positions are diametrically opposed: Darnay is a democrat, while the Marquis is an adherent of the ancien régime. The Marquis is portrayed as a cruel, heartless nobleman:
"Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky."
That night, Gaspard, the man who had ridden underneath the carriage, murders the Marquis in his sleep. Gaspard is later captured and hanged for his crime.
Returning to England, Darnay asks Dr. Manette for his consent to marry Lucie. He is not the only suitor however. Both Stryver, Carton's patron (by way of comic relief) and, more seriously, Carton himself, are captivated by her. Carton is the only one who reveals his feelings directly to Lucie--Stryver is convinced of the futility of his aspirations, and Darnay proposes the marriage to Dr. Manette. When Carton confesses his love to Lucie, he admits he is incapable of making her happy; she has inspired him to lead a better life, but he lacks the energy to follow through. However, he promises to "embrace any sacrifice" for her or one that she loves. Meanwhile, Darnay agrees to reveal his true surname to Dr. Manette on the morning of his marriage to Lucie.
In Paris, Monsieur and Madame Defarge foment Jacobin sympathies. Madame Defarge takes the long view, as opposed to her husband, who is impatient to bring on the revolution. They learn, from an informant within the police, that a spy is to be quartered in Saint Antoine. He is John Barsad, one of those who had given false testimony against Darnay. The following morning, Barsad enters the Defarges' wine shop, but Madame Defarge recognizes him from the description she had been given. Barsad acts as an agent provocateur and tries to lead her into discussing the impending execution of the unfortunate Gaspard. In the course of the conversation, he mentions that Darnay is to be married to Lucie Manette.
On the morning of the marriage, Darnay, at Dr. Manette's request, reveals who his family is, a detail which Dr. Manette had asked him to withhold until then. Unfortunately, this unhinges Dr. Manette, who reverts to his obsessive shoemaking. His sanity is restored before Lucie returns from her honeymoon; to prevent a further relapse, Lorry destroys the shoemaking bench which Dr. Manette had brought with him from France.
Later, in mid-July 1789, Jarvis Lorry visits the Darnays and tells them of the uneasiness in Paris. The scene cuts to the Saint Antoine fauborg for the storming of the Bastille, with the Defarges in the lead. With the hated prison in revolutionary hands, Defarge enters Dr. Manette's former cell. He uncovers a manuscript which the inmate had written during his confinement, hidden by that same inmate on the inside of a chimney, condemning the Evrémondes, pere et fils (father and son), for his wrongful imprisonment and the destruction of his family.
In the summer of 1792, a letter is delivered to Tellson's bank, addressed to the heir of the Marquis of Evrémonde. The letter recounts the news of the imprisonment of one of the Marquis' retainers, Gabelle, and beseeches the new Marquis to come to his aid. By chance, though the bank is unaware of his identity, Darnay receives the letter. He makes plans to travel to Paris, where the Reign of Terror is running its bloody course, blithely indifferent to the danger. Lorry is sent on ahead with a (cryptic) message to the imprisoned Gabelle that he is on his way.
[edit] Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
In Beauvais, erstwhile home of Dr. Manette, Darnay is denounced by the revolutionaries as an emigrant, an aristocrat, and a traitor. His military escort takes him to Paris, where he is imprisoned. Dr. Manette and Lucie along with Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and the daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay, "Little Lucie", leave London for Paris and meet with Mr. Lorry. Dr. Manette tries to use his influence as a well-known former prisoner of the Bastille to have his son-in-law freed. He manages to protect Darnay on the night that mobs kill thousands of less-fortunate prisoners. After a year and three months, Dr. Manette successfully defends Darnay at his trial. However, that evening, Darnay is put on trial again, under new charges brought by the Defarges and one unnamed other.
While Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher are on their way to the market, they stop at a tavern to buy wine. There, Miss Pross finds her long-lost brother, Solomon Pross, now a revolutionary official. Neither is happy with the meeting. Jerry Cruncher then recognizes him as John Barsad. Sydney Carton, to their surprise, joins the party and confirms this. He then blackmails Solomon Pross, telling him that he knows that he is a spy, as he had overheard his conversation inside the tavern, and a double agent, working for both the French and British governments at different times. Pross reluctantly gives in to Carton's demands.
When Darnay is brought back before the revolutionary tribunal, he is confronted by Defarge, who identifies Darnay as the Marquis St. Evremonde and reads from the paper found in Dr. Manette's cell. The document describes how he had been locked away in the Bastille by the deceased Marquis Evrémonde and his twin brother for trying to report their horrific crimes against a peasant family. The younger brother had become infatuated with a girl. He had kidnapped and raped her and killed her husband, brother, and father. Prior to his death, the brother had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister, "somewhere safe." The paper concludes by condemning the Evrémondes and all of their descendants, therefore adding Dr. Manette's condemnation to those of the Defarges. Darnay is consigned to the La Force Prison and is sentenced to be guillotined within twenty-four hours.
Carton, while wandering the streets at night, stops at the Defarge wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have Darnay's entire family condemned. Carton discovers that she was the survivor of the ill-fated family mentioned in Dr. Manette's letter. He quickly informs Mr. Lorry and urges him and the others to leave France as soon as possible.
On the day of his execution, Darnay is visited by Carton, who, because of his love for Lucie and friendship with Darnay, offers to trade places with him. As Darnay is unwilling, Carton drugs him and has him carried out to a waiting carriage. The spy, Barsad, tells Carton to remain true to their agreement. Darnay, Dr. Manette, Mr. Lorry, Lucie, and her child flee France. Darnay uses Carton's papers to cross the border and presumably escape to England.
Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher, who had not left with the others, prepare to depart. Meanwhile, Madame Defarge goes to the residence of Lucie and her family, believing that if she can catch them in the act of mourning for Darnay, that they could be held accountable for sympathizing with an enemy of the Republic. Miss Pross sends Mr. Cruncher out to fetch a carriage. While he is away, she is confronted by Madame Defarge. Knowing that if Madame Defarge realizes that her would-be victims have already departed, she might be able to have them stopped and brought back to Paris, Miss Pross pretends they are in another room by closing the door and placing herself in front of it. Madame Defarge figures out the fact that nobody is in the room and realizes they had already left. She fakes ignorance and orders Miss Pross to move away, but she refuses. Madame Defarge makes a break for the front door. They struggle and Madame Defarge is shot and killed by her own pistol; the noise of the shot permanently deafens Miss Pross. Miss Pross and Cruncher then quickly leave.
The novel concludes with the death of Sydney Carton. If he had any chance to express his thoughts, they would be full of prophecy: Monsieur Defarge himself be sent to the guillotine, and a future child of Charles and Lucie Darnay named after Carton.