Integrating Skills Reading A Tale of Two Cities
On a cold November night in 1775, Miss Lucie Manette, who had grown up in England, traveled to France to meet her father, whom she thought was dead. Eighteen years before, her father, Doctor Manette attended to a young peasant boy and girl, who had been wounded and died at the hands of two brothers of the Marquis St Evremonde. Dr Manette wrote a letter about this crime to the government, but instead of justice being done, the doctor was thrown in prison for more than eighteen years.

Such was the situation in France before the revolution of 1789. The rich could do as they liked, while the peasants suffered. Freed from prison, Dr Manette stayed at the wine shop of Ernest Defarge, his former servant. The wine shop, in one of the poorest suburbs of Paris, was the hot spot for the French revolutionaries. Mr Defarge and his wife, Madame Defarge, were key leaders and officials of the Revolution. Madame Defarge hated the Evremonde family and wanted revenge for her sister and brother, who were murdered.

Lucie brought her father to England. On the boat, she met Charles Darnay. Darnay, 30 years old, worked in London as a teacher of French. He had left France because he hated the cruel deeds of his family, the St Evremondes, and the way they treated the peasants. He gave up his fortune and tried to forget his roots. When Darnay met Lucie, they fell in love. Meanwhile Sydney Carton, one of Darnay's friends also loved Lucie. Strangely the two men looked so much alike that people thought they were twins. Carton, whose life was a failure, knew he could not marry Lucie. He promised that as a friend he would do anything for her. Lucie married Darnay the following year and they lived a happy life in London.

Several years later, in 1792, Darnay received a letter from a former servant of the Evremondes, asking him for help. Dar.nay, who had been avoiding France for fear of what might happen to him there because of his background, realised that he must go. A revolution had taken place. The peasants were killing many belonging to the old order. Upon arrival, Darnay was immediately arrested as an enemy of the people and thrown into prison. He tried to explain that he was not like his uncle and father, saying he was on the peasants' side and wanted to help them. Dr Manette tried to use his influence to save him, but Ernest Defarge produced a paper and read it to the court. It was an account, written by Dr Manette in the tenth year of his stay in prison, about the bad behaviour of Darnay's uncle. He hid it in a chimney and had forgotten all about it. In the letter Dr Manette said that all members of the St Evremondes must answer for the wrongs done to the peasant boy and girl. The court found Darnay guilty and sentenced him to death for things his family had done.

A few hours before he was put to death, Darnay was visited by Carton in prison. Carton changed clothes with Darnay to take his place. He made this final sacrifice to help Lucie and save his friend. Lucie, Dr Manette and Darnay escaped to London, while Carton was taken to the guillotine. Just before he died, he thought to himself that his final act was far better than anything else he had ever done in his life. "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."
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