BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides
Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays
Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers
Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans
My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help

Not What You Meant?  There are 6 definitions for A Tale of Two Cities.

A Tale of Two Cities Book Notes Summary

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
by Charles Dickens
About 100 pages (30,098 words)
A Tale of Two Cities Summary

Bookmark and Share Questions on this work? Just ask!

Book 1, Chapter 4

Upon his arrival in Dover, Mr. Lorry checks into a hotel and sits down to breakfast. He informs an employee that he wishes for accommodations to be made for a woman who will be arriving that day and requesting to see him. Later, after a stroll on the beach, he sits down to dinner in front of the fireplace, where his thoughts are wandering, as though searching the coals of the fire.

Topic Tracking: Resurrection 2

After awhile, the waiter tells him that Miss Manette has arrived from London and wishes to see him. He follows the waiter into Miss Manette's apartment. There he sees a pretty and fresh-faced young woman who asks him, in a voice slightly tinged with a foreign accent, to take a seat. She tells him that she received a letter from Tellson's bank about the small property of her father, whom she has never seen, as he has been dead for many years, and that the letter instructed her to travel to Paris to communicate with a gentleman of the bank. Mr. Lorry tells her that he is the gentleman, and she asks if she may travel with him, as she is an orphan and has no one to travel with. He tells her that he would be happy to travel with her. He tells her that he will explain the nature of the business, although it is very difficult for him to begin.

He tells her that he once had a customer, a French doctor of high esteem, whom he knew for many years in Paris as a business colleague. He tells her the man married an English woman and that he, Mr. Lorry, was one of the trustees, as the doctor's affairs were entirely in the hands of Tellson's. He reiterates that he only knew the man on a strictly business level, and that their relations never extended beyond that. Miss Manette says that Mr. Lorry is actually telling her the story of her father, and she asks Mr. Lorry if he was not the man who took her to England when she became an orphan after her mother died only two years after her father. He tells her that he was. He also adds that her mother died after two years of searching for her husband (Miss Manette's father) and left her to grow up without living with the awful uncertainty of whether her father was alive after having wasted away in prison for so many years.

Mr. Lorry tells her that her father has been discovered, alive, and has been taken to the home of an old servant in Paris. He tells her they are going there to identify him and for her to take him home. She tells him that they will only find his ghost, not him, and that she has been happy her whole life without being haunted by his ghost. Just then, a wild-looking woman with red hair bursts into the room and demands that someone fetch smelling salts for Miss Manette. She fawns over the girl and excoriates Mr. Lorry for scaring her so.

View More Summaries on A Tale of Two Cities
More Information
  • View A Tale of Two Cities Study Pack
  • 6 Alternative Definitions
  • Search Results for "A Tale of Two Cities"
  • Add This to Your Bibliography
  • More Products on This Subject
    Love and Self Sacrifice
    Dr. Manette's and Sydney Carton's love for Lucie Manette bring about their resurrection and a new se... more

    The Representation of Women in Texts and Its Relation to the Context
    A topic that has changed over time is the representation of women, as there have been many identitie... more


     
    View all | View only answered questions | View only unanswered questions
    In a Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, how is the power of the mob vs the power of the individual portrayed? How is human behavior affected b the emotions and actions of a larger group?
    30

    What Points Mean

    The best answer to this question will earn 30 points. All other answers will earn 1 point. Click for more information.
    In Student Essays | Asked by juicyjuice | 0 answers | Open for 1 more hour
    Asked from the A Tale of Two Cities study pack
    (1 question)
    Ask any question on A Tale of Two Cities and get it answered FAST!
    Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
    discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
    Learn more about BookRags Q&A
    Copyrights
    A Tale of Two Cities from BookRags Book Notes. ©2000-2009 by BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved.



    Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags


    About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy