Historical Fiction Review : A Tale of Two Cities | A Novel by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's second novel I read this week. It must be admitted that Dickens is not an easy-to-follow writer because so many of the narrative elements in his story are buried in a language that is so expressive and dramatic.
Nevertheless, A Tale of Two Cities is a historical drama story set in the French Revolution and presents a Victorian view of the greatest revolution in Europe of that century from many unique figures.
A Tale of Two Cities is divided into three books and reviews nearly 20 years of European history centered on turbulence in the times of the French Revolution. In the first book, in 1775, we followed the journey of Jarvis Lorry and Lucie Manette to "restore the life" of Lucie's father, Doctor Manette, who was mentally ill after 18 years in the Bastille prison.
Five years later, we met the main character of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay, who was on trial for treason charges. But thanks to a plea from Sydney Carton, Darnay got out of the charge and was released. After he was released, he later got sympathy from Lucie. Then, Darnay fell in love with Lucie, having shown sympathy for her.
At the same time, Darnay's uncle, The Marquis Evremonde, awaits his nephew back to his excellent home in France. Previously, the Marquis hit a peasant boy and killed him, but he did not show any guilt at all. Knowing this, Darnay, upon arriving at his uncle's house, throws out Evremonde's name attached to him and decides to return to England to teach French. 1789. The commoners started the French Revolution. The Bastille Prison was attacked, and the aristocrats were killed one by one. Darnay received a letter from Gabelle, the housekeeper. Gabelle asks Darnay for help back and rescues her. Despite being forbidden by his wife and Lorry, Darnay still desperate to return to France. But unfortunately, he was arrested for being considered a stranger.
London and Paris; Two turbulent cities ahead of the French revolution. It is said that in France, the nobility ruled with irresponsible and miserable people. The welfare of the nobility is above all, while the little people are regarded as nothing more than dogs. The people have to pay taxes by the number of bites, while the nobility continues to splurge and fatten. Evil is rampant, no day without execution, no matter how small or great the crime committed by the person to be executed. That's the situation until, at some point, the French people got up and took the fight. The case turned back, this time it was the nobles who were rounded up, tried, and killed.
In the midst of the turmoil, Jarvis Lorry, a banker at Tellson's Bank, London, was met by a beautiful young French girl named Lucie, about the whereabouts of a father she thought was dead. Dr. Manette, the girl's father, is still alive in France. He was thrown into Bastille prison without ever knowing he had a descendant. After years of serving in the Bastille, which drained the doctor's sanity, he lived in the house of his former maid named Defarge. Mr. Lorry and Mlle Manette picked up the doctor from the place, moved to England, where they tried to restore the doctor's physical and psychic state.
Five years later, Dr. Manette and her daughter were involved in the trial of a French descendant named Charles Darnay, as a witness. Darnay was charged as a French spy who ran a plan to paralyze Britain. At the trial, they met with a lawyer named Mr. Stryver, and his eccentric counterpart, Sydney Carton, who surprisingly had a physical resemblance to Charles Darnay. Darnay was eventually found not guilty by the court. A few years later Darnay married Lucie, and the three French descendants, Darnay, Lucie, and the doctor, lived in England quite happily.
But something Lucie did not know yet, that her real name was not Charles Darnay. Darnay is one of the descendants of the French nobility, the nephew of Marquis Evrémonde. When Gabelle, Evrémonde's dweller was imprisoned, he wrote a letter to his master Darnay asking to be saved. So Darnay, ignoring the danger of self-threatening, went to France. There he was arrested for his noble identity. Darnay was released because Dr. Manette and Lucie went to France, and Dr. Manette used her influence so that her daughter-in-law was free. But in the evening Darnay has arrested again, with accusations from Defarge and his wife, and Dr. Manette! In the trial, Defarge read a letter Dr. Manette, who revealed the reason why he was thrown into the Bastille. An ugly event that occurred in the past linked Dr. Manette with the noble family of Evrémonde, where now a descendant of Evrémonde became his daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, Darnay will be executed by La Guillotine, the sharp woman, within twenty-four hours. Dr. Manette, Lucie, Mr. Lorry, and Sydney Carton are in the midst of the uncertain situation. How will this life storm end?
"It was the best time and the worst time. Period of wisdom, as well as times of ignorance. The age of faith, as well as the age of doubt. The Season of Light, as well as the Dark season. Spring of hope, as well as the winter of despair. We have everything before us, and we do not have it all. We all go straight to Heaven and immediately go to another street. In short, the times are so precisely these days. "
The above sentence is the famous opening sentence of Acts Two Cities. The novel is divided into three books, Book I: Back to Life, Book II: Gold Thread, and Book III: The Storm of Life. The Story of Two Cities is a translation of the phenomenal work of Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. This classic novel with this complex plot was written by Dickens using contradictions, contrasting the situation that occurred in the two countries of that era, the law-abiding and feudal France. Contradictions can also be found in the characters in the story, for example, Darnay, the emigrant nobleman for rejecting feudalism, neat and handy, is the "opposite" of the Sydney Carton character, the unresponsible lawyer who has no focus in his life to achieve anything. Miss Pross's character, Lucie's physically tough but very faithful waiter, contradicts Madame Defarge's vengeful and bloodthirsty spirit. In many parts Dickens also uses symbols that are sometimes difficult to understand, for example at the beginning of the story in Book I: Back to Life, Mr. Lorry will pick up "someone who has been buried alive for eighteen years." The point is Mr. Lorry will pick Dr. Manette, who had spent several years in the Bastille, lost his mind. He is a dead man. Then Madame Defarge who knit without stopping. He is registering the names of those who will be sentenced to death. This knitting activity also symbolizes the "wolf in sheep's clothing," the small French people who look harmless, knit in silence, but in their hands also the aristocracy will fall.
The translation of A Tale of Two Cities published by Elex Media Komputindo entitled "The Story of Two Cities" is not at all disappointing, both in the physical form and the substance of the book. The translations worked by Peusy Sharmaya are, in my opinion, is very good. The type of paper and font used also perfect.
Overall, the Story of Two Cities worth five stars rewarded. The biggest factor is Dickens' brilliant writing. He is able to build stories with fantastic and complicated plots, sometimes deliberately storing some elements for the end of the story, so the reader will not stop wondering what it will be like in the ending of the story. The writing style is poetic but with a sad and tragic aura, very typical of Dickens. However, for readers who do not like long narratives, it is likely to be difficult to enjoy this work, Dickens. There is a mention of A Tale of Two Cities as Dickens's work that does not have a memorable Scrooge character in A Christmas Carol, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, or Fagin at Oliver Twist. I personally disagree, after reading this book to the end and experiencing an "echo" at the end of the story caused by a character named Sydney Carton.
Almost all of the characters in A Tale of Two Cities are trapped, both physically and non-physically. Here are some:
- Lorry is trapped in a job he does not like, working in a bank. Though desperate to find another job, he did not think of any other work he could do. He must be patient with his work that requires him to face danger (because he was told to travel to France during political instability).
- Doctor Manette once trapped physically, which then caused him to experience a mental illness that he could never let go of. Despite being gradually healed thanks to Lucie, Doctor Manette is sometimes still caught in the "cage" of his soul.
- Darnay is the same. He's been in prison. However, his non-physical captivity is on his family's name, Evremonde. Darnay will never be able to escape the name of Evremonde once and for all. Haunted by his family's name, Darnay constantly tries not to fall into the cruelty of his uncle.
- Then last, Madam Defarge. Defarge is caught in his past when members of his family are killed by Marquis Evremonde. Constrained by the past, he continues to plot a grudge against the aristocratic family, where in the end, his sense of resentment takes his own life.
A Tale of Two Cities is an excellent work from Dickens, even arguably his best work. Despite the plot or Deus Ex Machina plot in the plot twist that sometimes feels so deliberate, the core story and themes in A Tale of Two Cities remain relevant to these modern times. However, A Tale of Two Cities is not a "light" book. So, prepare a strong concentration before reading this book. Or use SparkNotes.
