"Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickens Charles)

1781 Lucie and Darnay marry; Dr. Manette lapses into amnesia (II,
17-19).

1783 Birth of little Lucie (II, 21).

JULY 14, 1789 Storming of the Bastille; Defarge searches Dr.
Manette's old cell. Start of French Revolution (II, 21).

JULY 1789 Peasants burn St. Evremonde chateau (II, 23).

AUGUST 1792 Darnay's return to France, and imprisonment in Paris (II, 24).

SEPTEMBER 1792 September Massacres. Lucie and her father arrive in
Paris; Dr. Manette's influence protects Darnay from death at the
hands of the mob (III, 2-4).

DECEMBER 1793 Darnay tried and acquitted at La Conciergerie (III, 6);
Darnay rearrested same night, through Defarge's influence (III, 7).
John Barsad revealed as Solomon Pross, Miss Pross' missing brother;
Sydney Carton exposes him as spy of the Revolutionary prisons and
blackmails him into helping Carton (III, 8). Darnay's second trial;
evidence from Dr. Manette's journal condemns him to die (III, 9-10).
Carton takes Darnay's place in La Conciergerie; Darnay party flees
France (III, 13). Madame Defarge killed; Miss Pross deafened (III,
14). Carton dies on guillotine (III, 15).

Keep in mind that Dickens was experimenting in A Tale of Two Cities.
He hoped to reveal character through events in the story, rather than
by dialogue. He attempted to comment on French history by creating
not only individuals but characters who seem to stand for entire
social classes. The little mender of roads, a common man thrust into
Revolutionary excesses, is one example; Monseigneur, whose
chocolate-drinking requires the services of four strong men, is
another.

One of the great caricaturists of his age, Dickens often found his
talent hard to suppress. Remember Dickens' penchant for exaggeration
when you meet Miss Pross (with her phenomenal bonnet like a Stilton
cheese) and spiky-haired Jerry Cruncher. These characters may not
strike you as conventionally realistic, but think again. Are they
meant to be just like you and me? Some readers feel that the simpler
characters, set in the framework of a dense plot, express Dickens'
sense of the complexity of life.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES: LUCIE MANETTE (DARNAY)

One way you may approach Lucie Manette is as the central figure of
the novel. Think about the many ways she affects her fellow
characters. Although she is not responsible for liberating her
father, Dr. Manette, from the Bastille, Lucie is the agent who