Resumo de A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities is set primarily in Paris and London during one of the most turbulent periods of European history, the French Revolution. The novel covers events between 1775 and 1793, referring also to incidents occurring before that time. The French Revolution began in 1789 and continued in various forms through at least 1795.
On the eve of the French Revolution, national debts and aristocratic unwillingness to sacrifice forced heavy tax increases on a populace already living at near-subsistence levels. Bickering between King Louis XVI and leading aristocrats revealed that the king could not effectively enforce his will through the military. In 1787 and 1788 excessive exports of already-scarce food caused near starvation among the poorer classes, and a bumper grape harvest depressed prices and further reduced the buying power of poor agricultural workers. Then came the winter of 1788-1789, probably the worst of the entire century. Inspired by political philosophers and the recent success of the American Revolution, many members of the middle and lower classes became increasingly hostile to the system that seemed to cause their suffering. During these years members of the poorer classes working toward revolutionary action referred to themselves as "Jacques," as do the patrons of the Defarges' shop in Dickens's novel. On July 14, 1789, a large group of Parisian citizens attacked the Bastille, the large central prison that symbolized to the populace the worst aristocratic offenses. Foulon, an aristocrat, is captured by a mob and cruelly executed, illustrates what happened in France during the months that followed, as local bastilles were attacked and aristocrats murdered. Power struggles for control of the country?both political and philosophical?dominated the next few years. In August 1792, when Darnay left England for France, the dominant political group passed a series of laws renouncing monarchy and proclaiming death for any returning aristocrats. During the months that followed, this political group used the infamous guillotine to behead aristocrats and others who opposed their policies. During this period approximately 300,000 people were jailed, and about 17,000 of these were executed.
Sydney Carton, a brilliant young lawyer, wastes his talents in drink and cynicism. Carton helps another lawyer, the self-centered and unintelligent Stryver, to win cases and "shoulder" his way up in the world, but he will not work for himself. "I am incapable of all the higher and better flights of men," Carton says. He is rejected by Lucie Manette in favor of the handsome Frenchman Charles Darnay who has a remarkable resemblance with him and in the end exchanges his place with Darnay at the guillotine. In fact Carton twice rescues Darnay from prison and death. In London, where Darnay is tried as a French spy, Carton's legal brilliance discredits the prosecution's false witnesses and brings about an acquittal. Darnay is thus "recalled to life" after facing a death sentence if found guilty. In Paris, Carton drugs Darnay and again recalls him to life by taking his place at the guillotine.

The novel opens with Dr. Manette, Lucie's supposedly dead father, being released from a French prison in which he was unjustly held in solitary confinement for eighteen years. As a prisoner in the Bastille, he fought despair by making shoes. For some time after his release, Dr. Manette cannot rediscover his old identity and finds it difficult to live without shoemaking materials and a locked door.

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