Charles Dickens
English
The novel, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, tells the story of Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who renounces his title and family name, and Lucie Manette, the daughter of a formerly imprisoned French doctor. Darnay is tried for treason in England but is acquitted, largely due to the testimony of Sydney Carton, a dissolute lawyer who bears a striking resemblance to Darnay. Carton, who has fallen in love with Lucie, later sacrifices himself by taking Darnay's place at the guillotine after Darnay is re-arrested in Paris as an emigrant and condemned by the revolutionary tribunal. Darnay's rescue is orchestrated by Dr. Manette, who uses his influence as a former Bastille prisoner to help save his son-in-law. Meanwhile, the Defarges, wine-shop owners in Paris and revolutionaries, seek revenge against the Evrémonde family, to which Darnay belongs, for past injustices, with Madame Defarge relentlessly knitting the names of those to be executed into her register. The story highlights themes of sacrifice, resurrection, and the corrupting nature of revolution, contrasting the lives of those caught in historical upheaval with the quiet domesticity of Lucie Manette and her family.
