When was tale of two cities set

In my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you, has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever.

I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.

The novel was illustrated by Phiz, better known as Hablot Knight Browne. Charles Dickens in Marie Antoinette by Louis Marie Sicard. Ellen Ternan.

Manette in the Bastille Prison by Phiz. How well do you know the characters in A Tale of Two Cities? The French Revolution began in and continued in various forms through at least Dickens takes most of his historical perspective from The French Revolution , a three-volume description and philosophical discussion by his friend Thomas Carlyle.

He portrays vividly the suffering of the poor and especially the Reign of Terror, best symbolized by the guillotine. Dickens greatly admired Carlyle and his work, and he read The French Revolution many times. Like Carlyle, Dickens cared less for accurate history and factual presentation than for vivid descriptions and the meanings he found behind the events.

Second, because the shocking violence of the Revolution serves as a warning to the consequences arising from social injustice, readers should be able to imagine what it would have been like to live through these circumstances.

SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why is Charles Darnay acquitted at his English trial? How does Madame Defarge die? It was very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious. It was an old-fashioned place, moreover, in the moral attribute that the partners in the House were proud of its smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness, proud of its incommodiousness.

They were even boastful of its eminence in those particulars, and were fired by an express conviction that, if it were less objectionable, it would be less respectable. This was no passive belief, but an active weapon which they flashed at more convenient places of business. Or a crotchety old aunt. Check out his "Character Analysis" for further details on this fascinating chap. Lorry also makes it kind of lovable. Even Sydney Carton is happy there. Funnily enough, we get exactly the same sorts of settings in France.

If the courts of England were bad, the French Tribunals are hell. Hundreds are brought to trial and sentenced to execution every day.