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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

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1775 On a moonlit night in February, Magnet, a young doctor living in Paris, was suddenly forced to make house calls by the Marquis brothers of Evremonde. In the Marquis House, he witnessed the tragic death of a crazy and stunning peasant woman and a teenager who was wounded by a sword, and learned that the Marquis brothers killed their whole family for a moment's lust. He refused the Marquis brothers' heavy bribe and reported it to the court. Unexpectedly, the letter of accusation fell into the hands of the defendant, and the doctor was thrown into the Bastille, isolated from the world and never heard from again. Two years later, his wife died of a broken heart. Lucy, a young orphan girl, was brought to London by her good friend Laurie and raised by the kind maid Pross.

18 years later, Dr. Magnet was released. The insane white-haired old man was taken in by Defarge, a wine merchant and old servant in Saint Antoine, Paris. At this time, her daughter Lucy has grown up and made a special trip to pick him up to live in England. On the trip, they met French youth Charlie Darnay, who took good care of them.

So Darnay is the son of the Marquis. He hated the sins of his family, resolutely gave up the inheritance of property and the surname of nobility, and moved to London to become a French teacher. In the association with Meynet's father and daughter, he had a sincere love for Lucy. For the sake of her daughter's happiness, Manette decided to bury the past and readily agreed to their marriage.

In France, Darnay's parents died one after another, and his uncle Marquis de Evremonde continued to do whatever he wanted. When his crazy carriage ran over a farmer's child casually, he was finally killed by his father with a knife. A revolutionary storm is brewing, and the hotel in Defarge is the focus of revolutionary activities. His wife kept weaving different patterns of aristocratic atrocities and recording them on scarves, eager for revenge.

1789 The storm of the French Revolution finally struck. The people of Paris captured the Bastille and sent the nobles to the guillotine one by one. Darnay, far away in London, ventured back to China to rescue Gabriel, the housekeeper, and was arrested and imprisoned as soon as he arrived in Paris. Meynet's father and daughter arrived overnight after hearing the news. The doctor's testimony brought Darnay back to his wife. However, a few hours later, Darnay was arrested again. In court, Defarge read the bloody book written by the doctor in prison: the last person to sue the Evremonde family to heaven. The court sentenced Darnay to death.

At this moment, Kalden, a paralegal who has always had a crush on Lucy, came to Paris, bribed the jailer and sneaked into the prison to replace Darnay, who was unconscious. Meynet's father and daughter are ready. As soon as Darnay arrives, they set off at once. The group left France smoothly.

After being sentenced in Darnay, Madame Defarge went to Magnet's residence to look for Lucie and her little daughter. In the struggle with Pross, she was killed by an accidental gun. On the guillotine, Kalden quietly devoted himself to love.

works appreciation

A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens' most important works. As early as before the creation of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens paid close attention to the French Revolution and studied the relevant works of the British historian Carlyle and other scholars many times. His keen interest in the French Revolution stems from his concern about the serious social crisis lurking in Britain at that time. At the end of 1854, he said: "I believe that discontent is much worse than fire, especially like the public psychology in France before the first revolution." It's dangerous. Due to the poor harvest, the tyranny and incompetence of the aristocratic class, the already tense situation was tightened for the last time, the failure of overseas wars, domestic accidents and so on. It has become a terrible event that has never been seen before. It can be seen that the creative motive of A Tale of Two Cities is to satirize the present from the past and learn from the historical experience of the French Revolution to sound an alarm for the British ruling class. At the same time, through the extreme description of revolutionary terror, it also warns people who are resentful and want to fight tyranny with violence, and fantasizes about finding a way out for the present situation of Britain with deepening social contradictions.

Starting from this purpose, the novel profoundly exposes the growing social contradictions before the French Revolution, strongly criticizes the debauchery and cruelty of the aristocratic class, and deeply sympathizes with the sufferings of the lower class. The work pointedly points out that people's patience is limited. Under the brutal rule of the aristocratic class, the people are forced to make a living and will inevitably rise up and resist. This resistance is just. The novel also depicts spectacular scenes such as the uprising people attacking the Bastille, showing the great power of the people. But the author stands on the position of bourgeois humanitarianism, that is, he opposes the tyranny of brutally oppressing the people and the revolutionary people's violent resistance to tyranny. In Dickens' works, the whole revolution is described as a catastrophe that destroys everything. It mercilessly punishes the evil aristocratic class and kills innocent people blindly.

This novel depicts three types of characters. One is the feudal aristocracy represented by the brothers of Marquis de Evremonde, whose "only unshakable philosophy is to oppress the people", which is the object of the author's painful criticism. The other is the revolutionary masses such as Defarge and his wife. It must be pointed out that their image is distorted. For example, Defarge's wife, Di Anna, was born in an insulted and persecuted peasant family and had a deep hatred for feudal nobles. The author deeply sympathizes with her tragic experience and appreciates her strong personality, outstanding intelligence and extraordinary organizational leadership before and after the revolution. However, when the revolution deepened, she changed a pen and denounced her as a cold, fierce and narrow-minded avenger. Especially when she went to the doctor's residence to look for Lucy and Lucy, she was a bloodthirsty madman. Finally, the author let her die under his own gun, clearly expressing a negative attitude. The third category is idealized figures, which are examples in the author's mind of solving social contradictions with humanitarianism and overcoming hatred with fraternity, including Meynet's father and daughter, Darnay, Laurie and Kalden. Doctor Manette was destroyed by the Marquis brothers. He had a deep hatred for the Marquis brothers, but for the love of his daughter, he could abandon his old hatred. Darnay is the nephew of the Marquis brothers. He was fully aware that he had condemned the sins of his family, abandoned his title and property, and was determined to "atone" with his own actions. This pair of characters reflect each other, one is a victim of aristocratic tyranny, tolerant; One is the heir of the noble marquis, who advocates benevolence. Among them, Lucy is a daughter and wife. Under the bond of love, they formed a happy family with mutual understanding and harmonious feelings. This is obviously the opposite way to solve social contradictions envisaged by the author, which is unrealistic.

A Tale of Two Cities is different from ordinary historical novels in that its characters and main plot are fictional. Based on the broad realistic background of the French Revolution and the experience of the fictional Dr. Magnet as the main clue, the author interweaves three independent and interrelated stories: unjust imprisonment, love and revenge, with complicated plots and complicated clues. The author uses flashback, interlude, bedding, bedding and other techniques to make the novel structure complete and tight, and the plot twists and turns are full of drama, showing superb artistic skills. A Tale of Two Cities is serious, gloomy and full of worries, but it lacks the humor of its earlier works.

Writer's style

British novelist, born into a family of naval clerks, was forced to move to debtor's prison at the age of 10, and took on heavy housework at the age of1/0. I used to be an apprentice in a leather shoes workshop. 16 years old, worked as a copywriter in a law firm, and later worked as a reporter in a newspaper. He only went to school for a few years and became a famous writer by hard self-study and hard work.

He lived in the transitional period from semi-feudal society to industrial capitalist society in Britain. His works describe all aspects of social life in this period extensively and profoundly, vividly depict the images of representatives from all walks of life, expose and criticize all kinds of ugly social phenomena and their representatives from the humanitarian point of view, and give sympathy and support to the suffering and resistance struggle of working people. At the same time, however, he also advocated the idea of tolerance, forgiveness and class harmony with "benevolence" as the core, and held a contradictory attitude of supporting the struggle of working people in action and denying it in morality. It shows the powerful strength and weak fantasy of his realism.

Dickens wrote 14 novels, many short stories and essays, travel notes, plays and essays in his life. Among them, the most famous works are Hard Times (1854), a long masterpiece describing the contradiction between labor and capital, and A Tale of Two Cities (1859), another masterpiece describing the French Revolution. The former shows the cruel exploitation and oppression of workers by industrial capitalists, describes the unity struggle of the working class, and criticizes the principle of free competition and utilitarianism in defending capitalist exploitation. The latter alluded to the social reality of Britain at that time with the dissolute cruelty of French aristocrats, the sufferings of the people and the historical power of the French Revolution, and predicted that this "terrible fire" would be repeated in France. Other works include Oliver Twist (also translated as Oliver Twist 1838), Old Antique Shop (184 1), Dombey and Son (1848) and david copperfield (65438).

Dickens is the main representative of English realistic literature in19th century. Art is famous for its witty humor, meticulous psychological analysis, realistic description and romantic atmosphere. Marx called him and Thackeray "a group of outstanding novelists" in Britain.

Online reading

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Chinese name: A Tale of Two Cities

Mbth: A Tale of Two Cities

theme

Keywords: feature films feature films have video translation.

abstract

brief Introduction of the content

brief Introduction of the content

Adapted from Dickens' immortal masterpiece, this masterpiece reflecting the tragedy of the French Revolution was made with the efforts of great producer David Seznik and director Jack Conway, and it is also the best among the six film versions adapted from this book. Ronald Ronald Coleman plays Sydney Carlton, a lawyer in London, England. He is deeply in love with a Parisian woman, Ruth Manna, but she just regards him as an ordinary friend and marries a young French nobleman, Charles Daley. When the political situation in France was chaotic, Darrell was imprisoned by thugs, and Manna turned to Sidney for help. In order to satisfy the happiness of his lover, Sidney sacrificed his life to save his rival in love. When visiting in the dark prison, he saved Daley with a switch, but he went to the guillotine without hesitation. The noble sentiment of the hero is enough to make everyone cry at the same time.

Director Jack Conway (1); Robert Z. Leonard (Robert Z. Leonard)

Screenwriter Charles Dickens; Lipscomb (Lipscomb)

main actor

Ronald Ronald Coleman ... Sydney Carlton.

Elizabeth Allan ... Lucy Magnet.

Edna may oliver ... Miss Pross.

Reginald Owen ... Stryver

Basil rathbone ... Marquis Saint Evremonde.

Blanche Julka ... Madame Defarge.

Herry B. voso ... Dr. Magnet.

Donald woods (1) Charles Darnay

Walter Quetelet ... Bussard, spy.

Fritz Leiber (1) ... gaspard

Warner ... Gabel, Darnay's tutor.

Mitchell Lewis (1) ... Ernest Defarge, wine seller and former servant of Manette.

Claude Gillingwater ... banker Jarvis Laurie II.

Billy Bevan, Jerry Cruncher, bank messenger and cashier.

Isabel jewell ... seamstress.

Content type

Video Type: Feature Film Translation Producer

Country: USA

language

Original: English

Dubbing language: Chinese

Content creator

Author: Charles Dickens

Screenwriters: Lipscomb and Dickens.

Directed by Jack Conway and Robert Z. Leonard.

Starring: Elizabeth Allan and ronald colman.

Other responsible persons

Photography: Oliver T. Marsh

Composer: David snell (1) Herbert Stohart

Producer: MGM [USA]

Content creation date

Date of shooting: 1935

publish

Publisher: Fujian Dongyu Company

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