A Tale of Two Cities Book the Second, Chapter Four – Congratulatory

1. A Tale of Two Cities Book the Second, Chapter Four – Congratulatory • As Lucie and her father step out of the courtroom, our narrator takes some time to catch us up on their lives. • Doctor Manette is looking worlds better. • Our narrator is pretty sure that this is all Lucie’s doing: she's brought him back to life. • Everyone congratulates everyone else on Darnay’s release.

2. Mr. Stryver, Darnay’s lawyer, seems to be taking most of the credit for the legal maneuver that saved his life. • Of course, that would be forgetting Carton’s role in the affair – which our narrator wouldn’t want us to do. • Unsurprisingly, pointing out the similarity between Carton and Darnay was Carton’s own idea. He was the brains behind the operation.

3. Mr. Lorry asks if "a man of business" might now approach Charles Darnay. • As we quickly realize, however, anytime Mr. Lorry wants to be a "man of business," it rarely works well. • He’s soon congratulating Charles just like everyone else. • Carton, who still seems pretty cynical about the justice system (hmm…wonder why?), wants to get out of the general area of the court. • He asks Darnay to come out to dinner with him. • Aww…a blossoming friendship? • Well, not exactly. Darnay can’t seem to break through Carton’s cynicism. And Carton’s already seen how Darnay looks at Lucie. • In fact, just because Carton seems to like rubbing salt in his own wounds, he gets Darnay to propose a toast to "Miss Manette!"

4. After sharing a drink or two together, Carton’s pretty sure he doesn’t like Darnay. • Darnay sure doesn’t like Carton. • Perhaps they might even get into blows over a girl…until, of course, Darnay realizes that Carton has just saved his life. • Before they part, however, Darnay wants to know why Carton seems so angry and depressed. • Muttering that he’s a "disappointed drudge," Carton says that he’s been worth nothing all this life.

5. As Darnay leaves, Carton engages in a little bit of existential self-questioning. • Why hasn’t he been able to change his own circumstances in life? Why isn’t he ever able to change his ways or become a better human being? • Tough questions. And Carton’s got no answers.

6. Book the Second Chapter 5 The Jackal Where have we seen this comparison to a jackal before? (not this novel) What was the comparison insinuating? Hmm?

7. Folks drank a lot in those days. I’m just telling you now. Consider yourself warned. • Unsurprisingly, Mr. Stryver drinks a lot. So does Carton. • Here’s the difference, though: when Stryver gets drunk, he becomes worthless. • Come to think of it, Stryver’s often worthless. • Sydney, on the other hand, can down a few and still be on top of his game.

8. For reasons that no one can figure out, Sydney and Stryver are thick as thieves. They’re BFFs. • OK, they’re not exactly friends: Sydney can’t stand the fact that Stryver’s a big jerk. • Nonetheless, he spends most of his nights solving Stryver’s cases for him. • Stryver, in the meanwhile, gets very, very drunk and mumbles to himself. • There’s a good reason why Stryver calls Carton "Memory": he’s the brains behind all of Stryver’s operations. • Dickens starts to have some fun with the relationship between Carton and Stryver.

9. Stryver’s sort of like a lion…he’s top of the food chain. King of the hill. • And if Stryver’s a lion, then Carton is…a jackal. • Lions are hunters. Jackals are scavengers, scooping up the leftovers after animals like lions bring home the prey. • Hmm…does something seem off here? • For one thing, Stryver’s the guy that’s getting spoon-fed legal insight from Carton. • For another…well, the first one was all I had. • But you get the picture. The metaphor doesn’t quite fit. Could Dickens be using a little bit of irony here?

10. Stryver gets pretty happy on his punch and, after awhile, he begins to reminisce about his past. • And Carton’s past, come to think of it. • They’ve been together since school. • Back in the old days, Carton used to write Stryver’s term papers. Now he’s writing Stryver’s legal briefs. • Some things never change.

11. As Stryver pours himself another drink, he wants Carton to drink to the "pretty witness" who came to court today. • Carton gulps for a second, and then he mutters some unpleasant things about Lucie. • OK, they’re not that bad. But he does call her a "golden doll." • Stryver’s taken aback. He was sure he caught Carton staring at Lucie for most of the day. • Carton insists that Lucie means nothing to him. Nothing. Seriously. • Falling back into a drunken stupor, Stryver heads to bed.

12. Left to himself, Carton ponders why his life is so unhappy. • He imagines love and happiness for a brief moment, but then his masochism sets back in. • He could never win Lucie. • Depressed, he settles back in for another drink.

13. A Tale of Two Cities: Book the Second Chapter Six – Hundreds of People

14. Doctor Manette and Lucie live in a quiet little corner of Soho. • Back in the 1700s, Soho wasn’t the center of London. • Nope, it’s a nice, quiet spot of country. • On Sunday afternoons, Mr. Lorry walks from the center of town out towards Soho. • Everything there seems sunny and happy and all-around peachy keen. • It’s just like those television shows from the '50s. Happy people, happy places. Happy happy happy.

15. It looks like things have turned around for Doctor Manette. • He’s even started to take in a few patients; as it turns out, he was once a nationally-renowned doctor. • Doctor Manette’s practice is on the ground floor of their home; they live on the second floor. • A mysterious man whom nobody has ever seen lives on the third floor. Don’t worry – he’s not important. • The Manettes don’t have loads of money, but Lucie has managed to make their home very…homey.

16. Mr. Lorry breathes a sigh of relief as soon as he steps inside the door. • Once he’s inside, a wild-looking red-haired woman greets him. • She’s Miss Pross. • Once upon a time she was Lucie’s landlady/governess, but now she lives with the Manettes. • She’s very, very devoted to Lucie. • Oh, and she calls Lucie "Ladybird." We wish we could tell you a reason for this, but we really can’t. • At the moment, she’s also extremely upset. • As she informs Mr. Lorry, ever since he interfered in Ladybird’s life, hundreds of people have been beating down her door. • Hundreds? Wasn’t it just one person…and wasn’t he her father? • Well, yes. Miss Pross might be exaggerating slightly.

17. There have been more visitors to the house than she would like, however: Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Mr. Stryver have all been making regular appearances at the Manette house. • While the two wait for the Manettes to return, Miss Pross tells Mr. Lorry that the doctor has been up at night, pacing back and forth in his room. Only Lucie can calm him down and get him to go to sleep. • Eventually the Manettes return. They sit down to dinner with Mr. Lorry.

18. After dinner, Mr. Darnay stops by. Making conversation, he asks Doctor Manette if he’s seen the Tower. • A brief historical interruption: The Tower of London is probably the tower to which Mr. Lorry’s referring. It was the place that the British held political prisoners. In other words, it was sort of the British equivalent of the Bastille, where Dr. Manette was held. By the time that Dickens was writing A Tale of Two Cities (and even by the time that the events in the novel were supposed to have occurred) the tower wasn’t really much of a prison anymore. Instead, it housed the Crown Jewels, which made it a nifty place to visit. You can still visit it, in fact.

19. Back to our story, though… • Mr. Darnay says that folks were restoring the Tower and happened to find, in the top-most room, a hidden letter buried by a former prisoner. • For no apparent reason, Dr. Manette seems violently upset by this news. • Well, we have a hunch as to why he’s so upset. • During Tea-time, Sydney Carton stops by. • It begins to rain really heavily, so everyone has to stay at the Manette’s for a long time.

20. That’s about it for Chapter 6 Keep reading to find out – “what the heck is this all about!”