A Tale of Two Cities: who's who, timeline and places
Everyone in A Tale of Two Cities, what happens when, and where, without spoilers: tell us how far you have read and we show only what you already know.
- LorryHe is a Dover mail passenger who receives instructions from Jerry and sends a puzzling reply.First seen in chapter 2
- JerryHe rides to the Dover mail with a message for Jarvis Lorry.First seen in chapter 2
- LucieShe meets Lorry in Dover and learns that her father is alive after a long imprisonment.First seen in chapter 4
- Doctor ManetteHe is Miss Manette’s father, believed dead but now discovered alive after a long imprisonment.First seen in chapter 4
- Madame DefargeShe signals to her husband while customers exchange the name Jacques in his shop.First seen in chapter 5
- Monsieur DefargeHe receives Lorry and Miss Manette at his shop and leads them to her father’s locked attic.First seen in chapter 5
- Charles DarnayHe faces a treason charge for allegedly passing military information to France.First seen in chapter 8
- Sydney CartonHis resemblance to Darnay undermines a witness’s identification during the treason trial.First seen in chapter 9
- John BarsadHe is a prosecution witness whose character is challenged during Darnay’s treason trial.First seen in chapter 9
- Roger ClyHe gives testimony against Darnay that questioning exposes as weak.First seen in chapter 9
- Mr. StryverHe joins the Manettes and Lorry in congratulating Darnay on escaping death.First seen in chapter 10
- Miss ProssShe attends Lucie’s household and describes how Lucie calms her father during troubled nights.First seen in chapter 12
- MarquisHis recklessly driven carriage kills a child, and he offers money instead of sympathy.First seen in chapter 13
- Monsieur GabelleThe Marquis orders him to detain a stranger if he remains in the village overnight.First seen in chapter 14
- Chapter 1
The narrator presents England and France as countries whose apparent stability hides cruelty, disorder, and approaching change.
- Chapter 4
Lorry tells Miss Manette that her father is alive and explains their secret journey to Paris.
- Chapter 6
Miss Manette comforts her confused father while Lorry and Defarge arrange their departure.
- Chapter 9
Carton’s resemblance to Darnay weakens an identification, and the jury acquits Darnay of treason.
- Chapter 11
Carton prepares Stryver’s legal arguments through a night of work and drinking.
- Chapter 13
The Marquis’s carriage kills a child, and his offer of money provokes anger rather than submission.
- Chapter 15
Darnay rejects his uncle’s oppression and expected inheritance; the next morning, the Marquis is found stabbed.
- Chapter 19
Carton confesses his love to Lucie and promises to sacrifice himself for her or anyone she loves.
- Chapter 21
Madame Defarge records revolutionary targets in knitting after a road mender describes the execution of the Marquis’s killer.
- Chapter 24
Lucie marries Darnay, and Doctor Manette returns to shoemaking after their departure.
- Chapter 25
After Manette recovers, Lorry and Miss Pross secretly destroy or bury his shoemaking equipment.
- Chapter 27
An armed crowd takes the Bastille, and Defarge searches Manette’s former cell.
- Chapter 29
Four figures set the chateau ablaze while villagers and soldiers refuse to save it.
- Chapter 30
Darnay receives Gabelle’s appeal from prison and secretly leaves his family to travel to Paris.
- Chapter 31
Darnay reaches Paris under armed escort and is imprisoned at La Force as an emigrant.
- Chapter 35
Lucie waits daily near the prison so Charles can sometimes see her.
- Chapter 36
Gabelle’s letter and Doctor Manette’s testimony help secure Darnay’s acquittal before the Tribunal.
- Chapter 37
Four armed men arrest Darnay again and name the Defarges among his accusers.
- Chapter 38
Carton uses Barsad’s secrets to demand help after learning of Darnay’s renewed arrest.
- Chapter 40
Manette’s prison account condemns the noble family’s descendants, and the jury sentences Darnay to death.
- Chapter 42
Carton overhears Madame Defarge’s threats and directs Lorry to prepare the family’s departure from Paris.
- Chapter 43
Carton takes Darnay’s place in prison while Lorry leads Darnay and his family out of Paris.
- Chapter 44
Miss Pross blocks Madame Defarge’s search; their struggle kills Madame Defarge and leaves Miss Pross permanently deaf.
- Chapter 45
Carton comforts a frightened seamstress on the way to the guillotine and dies immediately after her.
Hidden until you have read that far.
- EnglandIt is a country troubled by violent crime and harsh justice beneath its rulers’ confidence.First seen in chapter 1
- FranceIt is a country marked by financial recklessness, religious persecution, and signs of change.First seen in chapter 1
- DoverIt is where Lorry is instructed to wait for Mam’selle.First seen in chapter 2
- ParisIt is the destination of Lorry and Miss Manette’s secret journey to identify and care for her father.First seen in chapter 4
- Saint AntoineIt is a hungry neighborhood where spilled wine draws residents into the streets.First seen in chapter 5
- LondonIt is one of the places where Darnay works teaching French and translating.First seen in chapter 16
- BastilleIt is a prison taken by an armed crowd, where Defarge searches Manette’s former cell.First seen in chapter 27
- La ForceIt is the Paris prison where officials order Darnay’s secret detention as an emigrant.First seen in chapter 31
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