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Chapters
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A Tale of Two Cities has 35 chapters.
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Chapters35 items
The Period
Dickens opens with a famous contrast between the best and worst of times, setting the novel in the late 1700s across England and France.
The Mail
A mail coach struggles through fog and mud on a dark English road. A messenger on horseback catches up and delivers a note to a passenger named Jarvis Lorry, who works for Tellson…
The Night Shadows
Still on the coach, Lorry drifts in and out of a waking dream. He imagines digging up a man who has been buried alive for eighteen years and asking him whether he wants to be reca…
The Preparation
Lorry arrives in Dover and meets Lucie Manette for the first time. He tells her, carefully and indirectly, that her father is not dead as she was told, but alive and recently free…
The Wine-shop
Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris and go to the wine-shop of Ernest Defarge in the Saint Antoine district. A wine cask has broken in the street outside, and the starving people of t…
The Shoemaker
Lucie and Mr. Lorry finally meet Dr.
Monseigneur in Town
The scene shifts to Paris aristocratic society, years later. A powerful Monseigneur hosts a lavish reception where the French elite perform elaborate rituals of wealth and status.
Monseigneur in the Country
The Marquis travels through the French countryside toward his château. The villages he passes through are visibly starving.
The Gorgon's Head
The Marquis arrives at his château and meets his nephew, Charles Darnay, who has come from England. The two have a tense dinner conversation.
Two Promises
A year has passed. Darnay is living in England, working as a French tutor.
A Companion Picture
Sydney Carton visits Stryver the morning after the Darnay acquittal celebration. Stryver, full of himself as usual, announces he plans to marry Lucie Manette.
The Fellow of Delicacy
Stryver goes to propose to Lucie but is intercepted by Mr. Lorry, who gently warns him that the proposal will not be well received.
The Fellow of No Delicacy
Sydney Carton visits Lucie alone and tells her he loves her. He is not proposing.
The Honest Tradesman
Jerry Cruncher's secret night job is revealed. He goes out after dark, digs up a recently buried coffin, and sells the body to medical researchers.
Knitting
The action moves to France, to Defarge's wine shop in Saint Antoine. A man named John Barsad arrives and shares news that a spy has been placed among the revolutionaries.
Still Knitting
Madame Defarge keeps knitting names into her register while the Defarges discuss the growing revolutionary movement. A spy named John Barsad visits the wine shop, pretending to be…
One Night
The night before Lucie marries Charles Darnay, she and her father have a private conversation. Doctor Manette reassures her that her happiness does not diminish his love or their…
Nine Days
Lucie and Darnay marry. Immediately after the ceremony, Darnay tells Doctor Manette his real name and family identity.
An Opinion
Doctor Manette has recovered and seems fully himself again. Mr.
A Plea
Sydney Carton visits the Darnays at their new home. He is awkward and clearly uncomfortable with domestic happiness he does not share.
Echoing Footsteps
The Darnay household in London is peaceful but haunted by an undercurrent of unease. Lucie hears footsteps echoing in the street outside and imagines the crowds of people whose li…
The Sea Still Rises
Back in Paris, the revolutionary violence intensifies. Madame Defarge and her circle grow more powerful and more bloodthirsty.
Fire Rises
The countryside around the Evrémonde estate burns. Peasants destroy the chateau and kill the local tax collector, Foulon, who had once said the starving poor could eat grass.
Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
Darnay travels to France despite knowing the danger. He is almost immediately arrested at the border and escorted to Paris as a prisoner.
The Vengeance
This chapter focuses on Madame Defarge's growing power and the way the revolutionary tribunal operates. Darnay is held in La Force prison while the machinery of the Terror process…
Dusk
Darnay is arrested again almost immediately after his first acquittal. The accusation this time comes from the Defarges and a mysterious third person whose identity is not yet rev…
Darkness
The identity of the third accuser is revealed: it is Doctor Manette himself, through a letter he wrote while imprisoned in the Bastille.
A Hand at Cards
Carton takes action. He confronts Barsad, a spy who now works as a prison turnkey, and blackmails him into cooperation.
Triumph
Darnay is convicted and sentenced to death within twenty-four hours. The tribunal is swift and the outcome was never really in doubt after Manette's letter.
The Substance of the Shadow
This chapter is Manette's letter, read in full or summarized through its effects. It tells the story of how the Evrémonde brothers forced Manette to treat a dying peasant girl and…
Fatality
Darnay is condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal after a swift, almost predetermined trial. Defarge testifies against him using Dr.
Darkness
Sydney Carton moves through Paris with quiet purpose. He visits a chemist and obtains a mysterious substance, and he walks the city at night, mentally preparing himself.
The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
Carton's plan comes together. He arranges for the Manette family to prepare for immediate departure from Paris.
The Knitting Done
Madame Defarge moves to complete her revenge. She goes to find Lucie and her daughter, intending to denounce them and have them arrested before they can escape Paris.
The Footsteps Die Out For Ever (Final)
Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine in Darnay's place. He is calm and comforts a young seamstress who is also condemned.
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