… by darkeve

A Tale of Two Cities

“Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning him-self to let it eat him away.”

James Wilby as Sydney Carton

I was only 14 the first time I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, I was overwhelmed and the one thing that troubled my parents was that the only person that I could relate to in the novel was Sydney Carton.  I felt this way because back then I used to help other students with their homework, but I never bothered to do mine. That seemed a lot like Sydney Carton. I just loved him. I still have my copy with my favorite parts highlighted.

The only actor who played Sydney Carton and seriously convinced me was James Wilby in the mini-series made in 1989. I will discuss this in a future post hopefully.

I remember back at  high school when my economics teacher told me that the worst person is the one who is capable of doing so much and yet is doing nothing. I didn’t care back then, but what he said stayed with me for years.

source…

“First lesson is: smoke dry. Keep saliva out of the pipe. Practice, if necessary, on an unlighted unfilled pipe. Keep the stem out of the saliva trough just behind and below the lower teeth. And swallow frequently. A dry pipe smokes clean. It isn’t spoiled by sogging saliva. It’s not liable to go sour.

“Second lesson: smoke slowly. You’ll tend to revert to the cigarette smoking habits, but try to keep your mind on the fact that you’re smoking a pipe-check a tendency to forget until your tongue is burned-and soon you’ll be merrily puffing at your pipe just like all the fellows you’ve always envied. Test yourself by holding the pipe bowl every few puffs. If it’s to hot in your hand, let it go out and light it again after it cools ( relighting does not effect the taste of the pipe after the first couple of puffs) and you’ll be saving your tongue the discomforts of fire and brimstone. You know how to appreciate good liquor, don’t you? You roll it over your tongue, test it’s fragrance, sip it slowly. Try appreciating your tobacco in the same way. Roll it over your tongue, let a little come out of your nostrils. Don’t inhale-taste. It’s lots cheaper, less potent-and a powerful aid to correct pipe smoking!

“Summarising: 1, Smoke dry. 2, Smoke slowly.”

This advice was written by Sidney Ram in Chicago 1941

How to pack and light a pipe
No matter how good the tobacco or the pipe is, they will still smoke poorly if the correct filling technique is not achieved, like all good things in life it takes practice and patience, don’t get discouraged if your first attempt fails, remember we all had to learn.

Firstly check the pipe is clear of obstructions by tapping it in the palm of your hand (Tip: make sure you hold the pipe stem as close to the bowl as possible to avoid cracking the stem) and then blowing into the mouthpiece, (Tip: when I do this I have the bowl facing downwards, that way I don’t get an eyeful of dottle or what ever else is lurking in the depths of my pipe).

Secondly when the pipe is clear and clean fill the pipe with pinches of tobacco tamping each layer and sucking on the pipe every so often to ensure the tobacco is not to tightly packed, you should be able to get the feeling of sucking through a straw, ( Tip: the first layer should not be packed to tightly), try to maintain a “springy” feeling to the tobacco, (Tip: if the pipe is a new never smoked briar only fill half way for the first two to three bowl fulls this will help to achieve an even “cake” build up).

Thirdly, once the pipe is packed it is time to light the tobacco for the first time called the charring light, you need to achieve a complete charred lid of tobacco, this is done by dancing the flame over the tobacco and drawing on the pipe and sucking the flame into the bowl at the same time, be careful not to char the rim of the bowl, once all the surface of the tobacco is charred, re-tamp the tobacco.

Lastly, this is the time for pleasure, you may now add the final light, once again dance the flame over the charred lid of tobacco while drawing on the pipe sucking the flame into the bowl, there you go! enjoy yourself you have deserved it.

During the course of smoking your pipe, you may have to re-light often, this is nothing to worry about, just re-tamp the tobacco, insert a pipe cleaner if needed and re-light, I tend to leave the ash in the bowl when I re-tamp and re-light because I find the pipe smokes cooler and stays lit longer, I even let the pipe “go out” on purpose because I like the feeling of relighting a good smoke, takes all sorts I suppose, the main objective is to enjoy yourself.

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Holmes was quite the Pipe Smoker

Hollywood promoted his pipe smoking frequently depicting Holmes with his deer stalker cap and a calabash pipe. The calabash was however a product of the movie makers, for nowhere in the 60 stories of Sherlock Holmes is there mention of a calabash. Clay pipes, and briars however are smoked by Holmes, and many of the stories characters, as we find in the story, ‘A Case of Identity’ Then he took down from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite languor in his face.

Actors

The case of indentity

is a story of a young woman wronged by her mother and step-father and involves Holmes finding a missing groom. This case can easily be read in an hour or so. As noted, there is an oily clay pipe smoked by Holmes, as well as a cigarette, and Watson is offered a pinch of snuff in the story. The reader should of course enjoy reading this case with a favoured pipe and a slow tobacco. The young woman, Miss Sutherland, is duped by her mother and step-father in this story. They are after her money and use a strange plan to assure their continued income from her. Holmes takes in the facts from Miss Sutherland and instructs her to forget her man, who had disappeared on the way to the church for their wedding. Holmes uses a clever method to bring to Baker street the scoundrel in this case, who has broken no laws. Today this case might end a little different.

Films

Holmes had a close friend

and associate, Dr. Watson. Doyle uses the character Watson as a readers insight into Holmes’ personal traits and especially the skill of deductive reasoning. Watson too was a pipe smoker. They spent a great deal of time in the stories having their first and last pipe of the day.

Quotes

We had breakfasted

and were smoking our morning pipe on the day after the remarkable experience which I have recorded, when Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, very solemn and impressive, was ushered into our modest sitting-room.

Links

… source

2. A Tale of Two Cities Summary: Major Characters
… The major characters in this famous novel of Charles Dickens!

3. NationMaster.com Encyclopedia: Sydney Carton
… Read and study the character of Sydney Carton!

4. Teaching A Tale of Two Cities
… John L. Colle on how to teach this famous novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens!

5. David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
… Dedicated to bringing the genius of Dickens to a new generation of readers!

6. Dickens Fast Facts
… Charles Dickens’ full name, date and place of birth, etc!

7. Tale of Two Cities: Literary Masterpieces
… 1980 version starring Chris Sarandon as both Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay!

8. A Tale of Two Cities (Masterpiece Theatre, 1989) (1991)
… 1989 (1991) version starring James Wilby as Sydney Carton!

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Dickens writes in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as he paints a picture of life in England and France. The year is late 1775, and Jarvis Lorry travels from London to Paris on a secret mission for his employer, Tellson’s Bank. Joining him on his journey is Lucie Manette, a 17-year-old woman who is stunned to learn that her father, Doctor Alexandre Manette, is alive and has recently been released after having been secretly imprisoned in Paris for 18 years.

When Mr. Lorry and Lucie arrive in Paris, they find the Doctor’s former servant, Ernest Defarge, caring for the him. Defarge now runs a wine-shop with his wife in the poverty-stricken quarter of Saint Antoine. Defarge takes Mr. Lorry and Lucie to the garret room where he is keeping Doctor Manette, warning them that the Doctor’s years in prison have greatly changed him. Thin and pale, Doctor Manette sits at a shoemaker’s bench intently making shoes. He barely responds to questions from Defarge and Mr. Lorry, but when Lucie approaches him, he remembers his wife and begins to weep. Lucie comforts him, and that night Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him to England.

Five years later, the porter for Tellson’s Bank, Jerry Cruncher, takes a message to Mr. Lorry who is at a courthouse. Mr. Lorry has been called as a witness for the trial of Charles Darnay, a Frenchman accused of being a spy for France and the United States. Also at the trial are Doctor Manette and Lucie, who are witnesses for the prosecution. Doctor Manette has fully recovered and has formed a close bond with his daughter.

If found guilty of treason, Darnay will suffer a gruesome death, and the testimony of an acquaintance, John Barsad, and a former servant, Roger Cly, seems sure to result in a guilty verdict. Questions from Darnay’s attorney, Mr. Stryver, indicate that Cly and Barsad are the real spies, but the turning point in the trial occurs when Sydney Carton, Stryver’s assistant, points out that Carton and Darnay look alike enough to be doubles. This revelation throws into doubt a positive identification of Darnay as the person seen passing secrets, and the court acquits Darnay.

After the trial, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver begin spending time at the Manette home, obviously attracted to Lucie’s beauty and kind nature. Stryver decides to propose to her, but is dissuaded by Mr. Lorry. Carton confesses his love to Lucie, but does not propose, knowing that his drunken and apathetic way of life is not worthy of her. However, he vows that he would gladly give his life to save a life she loved, and Lucie is moved by his sincerity and devotion. Eventually, it is Darnay whose love Lucie returns, and the two marry with Doctor Manette’s uneasy blessing. While the couple is on their honeymoon, the Doctor suffers a nine-day relapse of his mental incapacity and believes he is making shoes in prison again.

Meanwhile, the situation in France grows worse. Signs of unrest become evident when Darnay’s cruel and unfeeling uncle, the Marquis St. Evrémonde, is murdered in his bed after running down a child with his carriage in the Paris streets. Although Darnay inherits the title and the estate, he has renounced all ties to his brutal family and works instead in England as a tutor of French language and literature.

The revolution erupts with full force in July 1789 with the storming of the Bastille. The Defarges are at the center of the revolutionary movement and lead the people in a wave of violence and destruction.By 1792, the revolutionaries have taken control of France and are imprisoning and killing anyone they view as an enemy of the state. Darnay receives a letter from the Evrémonde steward, who has been captured and who begs Darnay to come to France to save him. Feeling a sense of duty to his servant and not fully realizing the danger awaiting him, Darnay departs for France. Once he reaches Paris, though, revolutionaries take him to La Force prison “in secret,” with no way of contacting anyone and with little hope of a trial.

Doctor Manette, Lucie, and Lucie’s daughter soon arrive in Paris and join Mr. Lorry who is at Tellson’s Paris office. Doctor Manette’s status as a former prisoner of the Bastille gives him a heroic status with the revolutionaries and enables him to find out what has happened to his son-in-law. He uses his influence to get a trial for Darnay, and Doctor Manette’s powerful testimony at the trial frees his son-in-law. Hours after being reunited with his wife and daughter, however, the revolutionaries again arrest Darnay, based on the accusations of the Defarges.

The next day, Darnay is tried again. This time, the Defarges produce a letter written years earlier by Doctor Manette in prison condemning all Evrémondes for the murder of Madame Defarge’s family and for imprisoning the Doctor. Based on this evidence, the court sentences Darnay to death and Doctor Manette, devastated by what has happened, reverts to his prior state of dementia.

Unknown to the Manette and Darnay family, Sydney Carton has arrived in Paris and learns of Darnay’s fate. He also hears of a plot contrived to send Lucie and her daughter to the guillotine. Determined to save their lives, he enlists the help of a prison spy to enter the prison where the revolutionaries are holding Darnay. He enters Darnay’s cell, changes clothes with him, drugs him, and has Darnay taken out of the prison in his place. No one questions either man’s identity because of the similarities in their features. As Mr. Lorry shepherds Doctor Manette, Darnay, Lucie, and young Lucie out of France, Carton goes to the guillotine, strengthened and comforted by the knowledge that his sacrifice has saved the woman he loves and her family.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known!”

“This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.” — James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

September 7, 2006
Sydney Carton

Re-reading Tale of 2 Cities right now – and this passage struck me.

When his host followed him out on the staircase with a candle, to light him down the stairs, the day was coldly looking in through its grimy windows. When he got out of the house, the air was cold and sad, the dull sky overcast, the river dark and dim, the whole scene like a lifeless desert. And wreaths of dust were spinning round and round before the morning blast, as if the desert-sand had risen far away, and the first spray of it in its advance had begun to overwhelm the city.

Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honourable ambition, self-denial and perseverance. In the fair city of this vision, there were airy galleries from which the loves and graces looked upon him, gardens in which the fruits of life hung ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled in his sight. A moment, and it was gone. Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears.

Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.

“the air was cold and sad” ….

Being “recalled to life” is a major theme throughout A Tale of Two Cities. In fact, Dickens toyed with the idea of titling the book Recalled to Life.

Dr. Manette’s release from the Bastille, Charles Darnay’s release after the trial for treason, and his later escape from the French prison, are examples of this theme. Also, Roger Cly’s fake burial and Jerry Cruncher’s nocturnal occupation as a ‘resurrection man’ follow this theme.

Sydney Carton, on his way to the guillotine, envisions himself ‘recalled to life’ in the person of the Darnay’s future son.

As Carton is contemplating his eminent sacrifice he finds peace in the passage from John 11:25-26:

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

A Tale of Two Cities – Published in weekly parts Apr 1859 – Nov 1859

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The year is 1775 and Dr. Manette, imprisoned unjustly 18 years ago, has been released from the Bastille prison in Paris. His daughter, Lucie, who had thought he was dead, and Jarvis Lorry, an agent for Tellson’s Bank, which has offices in London and Paris, bring him to England.

Skip ahead 5 years to 1780. Frenchman Charles Darnay is on trial for treason, accused of passing English secrets to the French and Americans during the American Revolution. He is acquitted when eyewitnesses prove unreliable partly because of Darnay’s resemblance to barrister Sydney Carton.

In the years leading up to the fall of the Bastille in 1789 Darnay, Carton, and Stryver all fall in love with Lucie Manette. Carton, an irresponsible and unambitious character who drinks too much, tells Lucie that she has inspired him to think how his life could have been better and that he would make any sacrifice for her. Stryver, Carton’s barrister friend, is persuaded against asking for Lucie’s hand by Mr. Lorry, now a close friend to the Manettes. Lucie marries Darnay and they have a daughter.

Meanwhile, in France, Darnay’s uncle the Marquis St. Evremonde is murdered in his bed for crimes committed against the people. Charles has told Dr. Manette of his relationship to the French aristocracy, but no one else.

By 1792 the revolution has escalated in France. Mr. Lorry receives a letter at Tellson’s Bank addressed to the Marquis St. Evremonde whom no one seems to know. Darnay sees the letter and tells Lorry that he knows the Marquis and will deliver it. The letter is from a friend, Gabelle, wrongfully imprisoned in Paris and asked the Marquis (Darnay) for help. Knowing that the trip will be dangerous, Charles feels compelled to go and help his friend. He leaves for France without telling anyone the real reason.

On the road to Paris, Darnay (St Evremonde) is recognized by the mob and taken to prison in Paris. Mr. Lorry, in Paris on business, is joined by Dr. Manette, Lucie, Miss Pross, and later, Sydney Carton.

Dr. Manette has influence over the citizens due to his imprisonment in the Bastille and is able to have Darnay released but he is retaken the next day on a charge by the Defarges and is sentenced to death within 24 hours.

Sydney Carton has influence on one of the jailers and is able to enter the cell, drug Darnay, exchange clothes, and have the jailer remove Darnay, leaving Carton to die in his stead.

On the guillotine Carton peacefully declares

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”