Book the Second, Chapters 1-12
* The book opens five years later. Does Dickens do a good job of filling in the gaps of the past five years for you? Were you surprised by any of the characterizations and where the plot had gone?
* The book opens five years later. Does Dickens do a good job of filling in the gaps of the past five years for you? Were you surprised by any of the characterizations and where the plot had gone?
* What was your reaction to the trial, and to the ultimate outcome? How did you feel the lawyers handled their cases? What did you think of the return of “recalled to life?”
* Several times during the trial, Dickens describes the crowd as buzzing blue flies. Did you feel this was foreshadowing of crowds and the upcoming revolution? Do you feel it is an accurate depiction of those who attended the trial?
* Dr. Manette sees Lucie as his Golden Thread, and Miss Pross shares that she keeps him from despair. What do you think of their relationship, and of Dr. Manette’s character ?
* Chapter Seven introduces us to a most odious French noble. What did you think of Dickens’ description and of the noble’s behavior and attitude towards the French peasantry? Were you surprised by the end of Chapter 9?
* What do you think of Charles Darney’s decision to move to England and of his profession of love for Lucie to Dr. Manette? What do you think of the parallel being drawn between him and Sydney Carton, especially in looks?
* Anything I've missed?
posted by Mimi @ 3/19/2011 05:26:00 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
1) Five years later -- It all seemed kind of abrupt (as it seemed abrupt later on to suddenly jump forward a year after the surprise ending you mention in Chapter 7.
2) The trial -- this was some vintage Dickens stuff, IMHO. When he's got dark social parody that really needs to be parodies, he reminds me of Mark Twain (and I mean that as a compliment, though overall, Dickens is a better writer).
One thing about the trial I didn't understand, though, is why the defendant wasn't found guilty. It sounded like everything (including public sentiment!) was stacked against him. I didn't know if that was something we would find out more about in future chapters.
3) Blue flies -- Just seemed like more of that good Dickensian use of metaphor. Not too subtle, but effective.
4) Golden Thread -- I'm trying to get into Dr. Manette and Lucie, but they keep sounding like all of those squishy, sentimental Victorian stereotypes.
5 French noble -- Wasn't he revolting? I wish Dickens could craft words about his heroines nearly as well as he can loathsome people like this. Somehow the ending wasn't too much of a surprise to me, just because I was starting to wonder why we were spending so much time on this person.
6) Darney -- I'm kind of suffering from the same inability to hear his dialogue and not think of rosy-cheeked Victorian decoupage. But I'm sure he's really a very nice person, and Sydney Carton sounds like a blustering, self-important idiot. So I suppose rosy cheeks are a good thing.
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) While time changes don’t usually bother me, there was something a bit clunky for me in this one. I was surprised that Manette was a doctor, somehow I’d missed it. I wanted a bit more of the back-story – how they’d gotten to England, where they were staying, those kinds of stories.
2) I felt that Dickens led you to assume that the verdict was going to be guilty, so I was very surprised at the outcome. I thought that he did a good job of showing that the prosecutor was gliding on the fact that he was assured a conviction, and that the defense attorney was able to use that to his advantage. I thought it was a very well done skewer of the lawyer.
3) I can’t take credit for the blue flies crows = revolution, it was in the introduction to my edition (written by Gillen D’Arcy Wood) but I thought that it was a very good point. I loved the blue flies description and the metaphor of the way that they buzzed was excellent (and oooh, one of my FB friends and occasional blog reader made a great point about the blue flies being attracted to filth) and very effective.
4) I liked the way that Manette sees Lucie (I don’t remember her name being used before this section, was it?) as his golden thread – but I do agree with the point that it is kind of creepy since he sees it as his wife and not as her. However, I think that Dickens does a very good job of portraying some dementia. I also liked Miss Pross and her assessment of how Lucie is able to anchor Manette. I get this feeling that Manette is so broken from his experience, I have a bit of foreboding about his character.
5) At first, I had a hard time pinning down the Monseigneur character. Originally, I thought he was a priest, and I think that Dickens led us to that impression by using the term “holiest of holies” during the description. There were moments where he could redeem himself and his failure to do so was very well described. I agree with a FB commenter (see above) that I definitely was drawing parallels to current society.
I was totally shocked at the ending of Chapter 9, but there’s a bit of poetic justice as well. I do have a suspicion as to who did it and I’m hoping that the person is revealed.
6) I thought it was an interesting point made that several French notables, including royalty, ended up at some point teaching French to the young English Gentry. I really like the character of Darney, and am rooting for him and Lucie to be a couple. I liked the point that a friend made that there must be some history between Darney and Manette, and I’m curious what it is. Was there more said during the crossing? Did they have a history of the crossing? Was the history actually between Manette and Carton? I’m curious.
Carton is an interesting parallel to Darney, I think that he sees Darney as who he could have been if he didn’t fall into drink. I also think that there is some foreshadowing going on here about how it will ultimately play out.
7) I had a hard time writing the questions for this section and I am so thankful that there have been great answers that have helped me a bit over the hurdle that I was running into.
I find Mrs. DeFarge’s knitting to be fascinating and I’m curious as to how it’ll play out. She, as a character, intrigues me. I have seen enough references to her character to know that she ultimately is not a good character, but so far, I’ve not seen any indication of that and am curious how it will all play out.
I also find it interesting how we are at least half-way through the book without having gotten to the revolution. I am wondering how time frames will play out.
BTW, Mimi, about that Monseigneur character: I don't think it's one person exactly. Mentions of him later on make it seem that he's an allegorical stand-in for the 'ancien regime.'
Sort of like St. Anthony, who is constantly invoked to talk about the peasants in revolt. I don't know where that one comes from at all. It just starting cropping up -- anyone know what it refers to?
Oooh, Grace - that is a very good point.
According to the copy of "Tale of Two Cities" that I have, St. Anthony was a section of Paris, near the Bastille or where the Bastille is. This link explains it:
http://dickens.stanford.edu/archive/tale/issue2_gloss.html
I loved your comment about the trial being vintage Dickens, I agree.
I also think you have a very good point about the squishy stereotypes that Manette and Lucie embody. It's very interesting.
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