[F2F Book Discussions] July 2014: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens | Moderators: Ycel & DC

[Ycel]

MONIQUE:
But...but...there was an explanation of Dover mail up there ^ (got buried I suppose).

Just to assure you that we have culled the most confusing stuff and included them in the glossary. We're posting that for Books I and II, until we're comfortable that everyone's brain has created new neuro pathways for Victorian English :P

Book I is rather bumpy, yes, but the coast will soon clear. Hang in there.

GWAXA:
So chapter 1 was describing the situation back then, huh? I thought the story was already starting and I couldn't understand anything. I had to listen twice (I'm using the videobook) just so I can get that loooong sentence.
Exactly what I did when I first read the book. You're not alone.

And "recalled to life", is it a code or something?
Secret!

Oh and thanks for the Glossary. it really helped. :)
You are most welcome! Your mods anticipated your needs.

MELIZA:
I also love the first sentence, by the way. :) In Chapter One, I just continued reading even though I don't understand the references and just accepted that England and France were in turmoil.
That's the spirit!

TIN:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves....XD
Ang dami kong tawa dito, LOL! I remember a course called History of the English Language and these are the very words in Middle English. It was totally different animal from the English that we know today. Buti na lang, walang ganito sa ATO2C :D

Oh! I did not know this existed. "If you wish you can also dress in Regency Style." Haha. And they will have a Netherfield Ball on the 22nd. So cool. And tempting is ze cake! :)
I adjure you to be tempted!

[Monique]

MONIQUE: But...but...there was an explanation of Dover mail up there ^ (got buried I suppose).

YCEL: I must have inadvertently buried it myself, haha. I usually just gloss over posts if it's TL;DR. Sorry. :D

[Ycel]

MONIQUE:
There, there. No harm done. But do check the glossary posts because they're meant to let you minimize your trouble with those troublesome details and maximize book enjoyment. Plus they're a labour of great amour :)

[Gay]

YCEL and DC: (view spoiler)[Thank you for the glossary :) Mas naiintindihan ko na XD (hide spoiler)]

ANGUS: (view spoiler)[I think that's what kept me from moving forward with this book. Chapters 1 and 2 were really difficult. If I remember it correctly, one of my professors mentioned that the first sentence from Chapter 1 was used by Rizal in one of his novels. :) (hide spoiler)]

MONIQUE: Thanks to the Dover mail, the first two chapters are a helluva bumpy ride. Literally and figuratively.
It's such a troublesome Dover mail!

[Louize]

Day 2 Questions
1. Explain the opening lines of ATO2C in your own words.
(view spoiler)[
As far as I could understand, the whole statement is a contradiction of itself in the extremes; therefore, it can either cancel itself altogether or that it stated possibilities it opposite directions.
Perhaps, the best and worst of times pertains to the fact that 1775 marked a new era. The Americans were on their way to gaining their freedom, but they have to go to war for it. The Industrial revolution had started, machines were being invented and built, but people lost their jobs -they were replaced by these machines. The Age of Enlightenment gave way to new scientific discoveries, but scientist were persecuted for witchcraft practice. Deeper relations with God were encouraged, but Jews and Protestants were being driven out of Europe. Roads and infrastructures were built, but taxes were killing the people.
(hide spoiler)]

2. What was your initial reaction to the phrase "recalled to life", and what did you first think it corresponds to, based on what you have read so far?
(view spoiler)[
When I first read it, I thought Mr. Lorry was being recalled to his duty as an army officer or prosecutor.
(hide spoiler)]

3. What are your thoughts about the race for the spilled wine on the streets?
(view spoiler)[
It was heartbreaking. People may have been extremely hungry and cold to went for that spilled wine.
(hide spoiler)]

4. Do you have any other thoughts about the characters, settings, and happenings that you have so far read?
(view spoiler)[
I do, but I'll reserve them for the F2F. :)
One thing though, Dickens is very wordy on this novel compared to those books of his I've read before.
(hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Day 2 Questions

(view spoiler)[
1. Contrast. The novel's title is A Tale of Two Cities. This first sentence set the tone for the whole novel. Looks like this motif of contrast will replay in future parts. That's my guess.
2. I thought that a character would come back from obscurity. No, not come back from the dead. The phrase didn't imply "dead" as the biologically dead. It felt like it was referring to someone who has been away for a long time.
3. It was funny (darkly humorous) and I was very concerned for their health. I have not seen our local beggars race for anything spilled. I guess we have more class than the French, oui?
4. Uhm, none. I'm afraid to get follow-up questions, hahaha!
(hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity

(view spoiler)[
My two sisters. It's interesting how they reacted differently when my parents separated. The middle sister became a sort of rebel (the kind who cut classes, went to bars and clubs, wouldn't go home for days) while the youngest sister was very jovial (the kind who would still laugh and joke about the crisis).
(hide spoiler)]

[Maria Ella]

Lemme rant: k fine ang ganda ng opening line nitong nobela mo, Charles. But it also means that you play with words too much. Oo na, wala pala kayong telebisyon. Sapat na ang mga pinagsasabi mo. Just like this time period, maraming liberal na pananaw ang naglipana dala rin ng karanasan ng mga mamamayan noong unang panahon. Andami mo ngang sinabi eh, Charles. Alam mo ba yun? Andami mo lang sinabi.

Sidenote: of all the books I have read, this is the toughest opening chapter of his. If you are a player of words mawiwili ka. But this is too much. You explain the situation of the two cities here. It felt like a senseless news update. Walang amor, ika nga.

[Veronica]

Day 2 Questions
(view spoiler)[
1. From the title, I think Dickens was drawing a parallel between London and Paris. He was also talking about his time of the 1850’s (when the book was published) and the time setting of the book which was around the French Revolution.

2. It didn't make sense to me at first and I ignored it. I figured Dickens would explain it later on. When I read about Lorry's dream ("buried almost eighteen years"), I knew that it was about a person who was thought to be dead and really wasn’t. I expected he would appear in the novel soon.

3. It gave you an idea of how desperate the impoverished Parisians were at that time. It was also a foreshadowing of the mob mentality and bloodshed (a literal “writing on the wall” of the word “blood”) that would prevail during that period.

There is a very good Discovery Channel docu on the French Revolution on Youtube which I found very informative. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEq_lA...

4. About Dickens’ verbosity, he really needed a good editor but I guess since this is a serialized story, once the chapters were published, he couldn’t go back and edit them.

There's a certain predictability to the plot but I think the book's a product of its times so I don't really mind. I actually find it interesting.:)
(hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity
(view spoiler)[
I became close to an officemate once. She was a casual in our department but really did good work. I felt bad for her when she got pregnant because the father of the child couldn’t marry her (they were both unmarried though and it’s a long story) and her contract was expiring. As a single mother-to-be, I found her courage and resolve admirable. I suggested she apply in my friend’s computer school. Long story short, she worked very hard and now has a managerial position in that school that has allowed her to travel to Europe and the States. The best part is that she is now happily married to the father of her child. :)
(hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Ella: Galit ka na nyan kay Charles? Haha! :P

[Monique]

Day 2 Questions
(view spoiler)[1. May I just say that the opening lines were meant to show distinction and/or delineation? Polar opposites? Diametrical points? :)

2. Like what I posted yesterday in my status update, as soon as I saw the words "Recalled to Life," this particular song (view spoiler)["Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence (view spoiler)['Wake me up inside, wake me up inside, Call my name and save me from the dark..' you know how it goes :D (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] started playing in my head. As it would turn out, the "Recalled to Life" chapters, in essence, had the same meaning as the song. Heee.

3. I thought about poverty and hunger, and how people would lap up the last drops of whatever food or drink that's there to stave off hunger or thirst. I think I felt depressed when I read about the cloth used to wipe off the wine from the ground, which they squeezed into their babies' mouth. :'(

4. I was wondering what the other three Jacques were doing outside Monsieur Manette's door, just before Jarvis, the wineshop keeper, and Miss Manette arrived. (hide spoiler)]


Day 2 Activity
(view spoiler)[My mother. Having two children to put through school single-handedly is a crisis, won't you agree, especially if you come from a middle-class family? After my father died, she put me through law school and my brother through high school and college only with her meager salary as a public school teacher, and later, through her retirement pay. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Maria Ella]

Hi Gwaxa! Since you have mentioned videobook, I tried it last night and I helped me survived the first six chapters of the book. It was fun hearing the old man read this old book. Classic and British. Heeee~

Okay:
Day 2 Questions
1. Explain the opening lines of ATO2C in your own words. (view spoiler)[perhaps this strong contrast of the lines depicted something good that will come out from something bad. Alam mo yung something is coming, and Charles (view spoiler)[OO MEL, irate ako hahaha - can I call him by name? haha (hide spoiler)] compares the past with the present. Siguro 1775 is the revolutionary years - way of work and so the way of life is changed, the liberal mindset becomes rampant but the humanity is slowly disappearing, ganun. I guess in these years France and England are so mahirap sa mahirap and wapakels ang mahaharlika.

It was nice of Charles to point out Death and Fate as the Farmer and Woodman, saying that both are working silently through this period. Tuluy-tuloy lang, keri lang. hahaha. I love this point - especially emphasizing the France situation about the killing spree (gusto lang bumitay kasi may kasalanan lang) and the England situation about the looting spree (na kahit ang Mayor ninakawan na rin).

Sidenote - nakakaloka ang Dover mail, ramdam ko ang putik. Ganun katindi ba ang putik sa Kent? wala lang. Siguro kasi taglamig. (hide spoiler)]

2. What was your initial reaction to the phrase "recalled to life", and what did you first think it corresponds to, based on what you have read so far?
(view spoiler)[MAY MISSION SI LORRY! *cue Mission Impossible opening score (hide spoiler)]

3. What are your thoughts about the race for the spilled wine on the streets?
(view spoiler)[Animalistic, naalala ko yung mga tsura ng mga tao sa Les Miserable. Miserable. The way they drink the wine is how they welcome revolution, eh. I mean, the spilled wine quenches the thirst. Pagod na sila sa ganoong sistema, and the mindset of the change keeps them alive, but at the same time, a bit of humanity is lost.(view spoiler)[WAW ENGLISH CHAROT (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

4. Do you have any other thoughts about the characters, settings, and happenings that you have so far read?(view spoiler)[ANONG GINAGAWA NG MGA HARI AT REYNA? NGANGA LANG? SARAP SAPAKIN RIN HAHAHA. Akshelly, naalala ko ang mga pinagsasabi ko sa Les Miserable -

Perhaps this is Hugo's battlecry when he wrote this volume. In a field of Restoration the king tries to forgrt the liberalism that Napoleon Bonaparte imparted the French. For he aimed to restore the glory days of the Monarchy. Little did he know that these liberal ideals are already embedded in the people.

(hide spoiler)]

AT DAHIL BOOK 2 na - AYAN NA ANG PAGIBIG YIIII <3
Pero ang galing ng ending ng book 1. May mission pa rin si Lorry haha

(view spoiler)[character in crisis - perhaps my closest friend in the graduate school years. ayoko magkwento rito, sa F2F na lang :) (hide spoiler)]

[Maria Ella]

Meliza wrote: "Ella: Galit ka na nyan kay Charles? Haha! :P"

(view spoiler)[Hi Mel, hahaha may hashtag hugot lang eh no? Hayaan mo na~ kunyari close kami ng author :P (hide spoiler)]

[Gwaxa]

Day 2 Questions

(view spoiler)[
1. I think Dickens was describing the situation/setting of the novel which was the French Revolution. How as he said, only superlatives or extremes, can be used to describe it. Best/worst and all that shizz.

2. I thought it was a code of some sort. Since Mr. Lorry implied that to whomever the messenger delivers that message, it will be understood. And based on what I've read so far, I think it corresponds to Monsieur Mannette being back, literally.

3. Dirty. The wine mixed with mud so why did the people race to drink it? Then he went on to descibe the state of hunger and poverty in those times and it clicked. Of course, for hungry people, wine is wine, no matter if it was already mixed with mud.

4. Curious and curioser. Which I think is good. :)
(hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity

(view spoiler)[
I got stuck answering this question since "crisis" for me is something like a natural calamity, haha. Wel,, I'll think of someone and just edit this. (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Day 2 Questions
(view spoiler)[1. The opening sentence depicts the coexistence of extremes during the period of the novel's setting which still exists during the period when the novel was written.

2. When I first read "recalled to life", I thought of a person who was believed to be dead but was not, that someone else will "recall him to life" when everything that they've been plotting, (something sort of like a revenge) is ready. Hehe!

3. I imagined that France must be so poor back then. I felt pity towards the hungry and poor people on those streets even more because there are also those people who are very rich. Speaking of extremes. Also, I like how Dickens vividly described the different ways the people did to obtain the spilled wine.

4. I still find it difficult reading a classic. But I'm already at about 40% of the book so it means I'm coping.:) With regards to the setting, before the start of each chapter, I usually look at the reading plan as guide to determine if I'll be at England or at France. Haha! But not anymore. I am now looking forward for something to happen to the characters, something like a major plot twist. Can't wait. Impatient? :) (hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity
(view spoiler)[-_- I can't think of anybody that I feel comfortable to share. Pass muna. (hide spoiler)]

[Gwaxa]

Ella: Videobook is the best. Lels.

[Tin]

Day 2 Questions
(view spoiler)[
1. The opening seems to hint at the overall theme of the book. Opposites, and the technique of repeating certain words. They think all is well and everything that is happening is right when it isn’t (“Whatever is is”). That things will stay the same, but then they won’t….something like that.

2.Initially, I thought Mr. Lorry was the one who will be recalled to life. Like, he was about to do something he hasn’t done in a long while or something like that. But as I got farther on, probably during the conversation between Mr. Lorry and Lucie at the hotel, I picked up on the idea that it's Mr. Mannette who will be recalled to life, because he made to be believed as dead, but in fact, only hiding somewhere.

3. The spilled wine scene painted quite a picture in my head. My gosh. And the woman who used her head scarf to drench the wine, only to slop it back on her head after…hard times…But really, I think Dickens is a master at painting the kind of atmosphere prevalent during the French Revolution. Anyway, I am only guessing that the whole scene is meant to show, aside from the condition during that particular time, one of the many causes of the peasant revolution.

4.Nothing that I haven’t expressed in the above answers, already. Hehe. (hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity
(view spoiler)[Eherm...Ako..and a friend. We always have some real or imagined character crisis. Mostly imagined. XD (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Thank you everybody for your answers! They were fun to read, especially with your takes on Lorry's "Recalled To Life" code :)

Note: Next set of questions and activities will be posted on either Saturday eve or Sunday morning. As usual, please don't hesitate to post about your thoughts on the chapters you have read so far :)


Gay: (view spoiler)[
If I remember it correctly, one of my professors mentioned that the first sentence from Chapter 1 was used by Rizal in one of his novels. :)

Really? I wonder what work is that... I'll have to check that one out :)

Rather a segue, but what you said reminds me of the painting The Parisian Life, by Juan Luna. (Luna was, of course, a contemporary of Rizal.) This painting: (view spoiler)[

(Click on photo for bigger resolution on Flickr.)
(hide spoiler)]
If you look closely at the painting, you will not only notice Jose Rizal's back at the far left, but also the newspaper behind the lady, which is titled L'Echo de Paris (said to be the Cry of the Bastille).

Rizal probably even got ideas from the revolution to inspire his books, too :)
(hide spoiler)]

Louize: (view spoiler)[Great tidbits! It rather seems to tie up with all of the "best of times, worst of times" references :)
(hide spoiler)]

Angus: (view spoiler)[LOL @ health and class. Mayhaps. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that, withstanding the health issue, we will (view spoiler)[perhaps still see some of the characters in the later years of the novel :o (hide spoiler)]. Blood is perhaps, that thick? :)

And haha on follow-up questions :P Thank you also for sharing; I suppose we can really see how differently people cope to the same scenario.
(hide spoiler)]

Ella: (view spoiler)[LOL, IKR sa too much words. Don't worry, wordy/cheesy din siya sa, ehem, romanticky parts :D

...perhaps this strong contrast of the lines depicted something good that will come out from something bad.

I can only hope that this is true. The beginning itself sounded bleak... But we shall see.
(hide spoiler)]

Ronnie: (view spoiler)[
It was also a foreshadowing of the mob mentality and bloodshed (a literal “writing on the wall” of the word “blood”) that would prevail during that period.

Great observation. As we shall see, mob mentality will indeed (heart-breakingly) rule the times to come.

Moreover, great story. It's rather inspiring, and it's nice to see that crises can sometimes bring out the best in people :)

Thank you also for the link to vid on the French Revolution! :)
(hide spoiler)]

Monique: (view spoiler)[
Hahaha, great reference! Indeed, just the right song for the chapters, too :)

I thought about poverty and hunger, and how people would lap up the last drops of whatever food or drink that's there to stave off hunger or thirst. I think I felt depressed when I read about the cloth used to wipe off the wine from the ground, which they squeezed into their babies' mouth. :'(

Indeed, very sad. But that makes me consider how they lapped up the wine, to stave off their hunger. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was viewing it as a luxury item (the wine), and how the people scrambled for it. Blood/wine vs humble crust and water. Interesting dichotomy.

Oh, and what an inspiring story, too :)
(hide spoiler)]

Gwaxa: (view spoiler)[
The wine mixed with mud so why did the people race to drink it? Then he went on to descibe the state of hunger and poverty in those times and it clicked. Of course, for hungry people, wine is wine, no matter if it was already mixed with mud.

I was wondering about this myself. I mean, if, say, Coke spilled on the ground today, I don't think even the 10-second rule would make me want to take a sip that off the ground, no matter how thirsty I am. I guess it really shows the poverty of those times.
(hide spoiler)]

Meliza: (view spoiler)[
When I first read "recalled to life", I thought of a person who was believed to be dead but was not, that someone else will "recall him to life" when everything that they've been plotting, (something sort of like a revenge) is ready. Hehe!

LOL at revenge. Actually considered this angle myself... Almost disappointed it wasn't that xD

Oh, I think there WILL be a major plot twist to come. Just you wait :)
(hide spoiler)]

Tin: (view spoiler)[Indeed, the scene paints quite a blood red picture... And right at the start of the book.

BTW, LOL on imagined crises :P What kinds? :o (BTW, belated happy birthday!)
(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

[Reading Plan Day 4-6: Book 2, Chapters 1-6]

Today, we start on a whole new scenery in ATO2C. Gone is the wine on the streets, and we say hello to a seemingly different world from Book 1.

(By the way, the chapter with the courtroom scene may be a little more wordier than Dickens' other chapters... I suppose Dickens' really relived his then role as a courtroom reporter here.)

Glossary
Book 2, Chapters 1-3 (Part 1 of 2): (view spoiler)[
Tellson’s Bank by Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place, even in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty.
(view spoiler)[
Tellson’s Bank is usually identified as the real-life Child & Co. in Fleet Street, which leased rooms above Temple Bar as a storage space for its records. Temple Bar is the point in London where Fleet Street, City of London, becomes the Strand, Westminster, and where the City of London traditionally erected a barrier to regulate trade into the city. As the most important entrance to London from Westminster, it has long been the custom that the monarch stop at Temple Bar before entering the City of London, so that the Lord Mayor may offer him or her the City's pearl-encrusted Sword of State as a token of loyalty. The term Temple Bar is also retained for the gateway designed by Christopher Wren which used to occupy the spot from the 17th to the late 19th century. Wren's arch has been preserved and is now located in Paternoster Square next to St Paul's Cathedral. In the past, the heads of several distinguished characters, who were convicted and executed for treasonable practices against their king and country, greeted visitors who entered London.

Temple Bar in 1870

Temple Bar today
(hide spoiler)]

…were but newly released from the horror of being ogled through the windows, by the heads exposed on Temple Bar with an insensate brutality and ferocity worthy of Abyssinia or Ashantes.
(view spoiler)[
According to Baedeker’s London and Its Environs (1908), “The heads of criminals used to be barbarously exhibited on iron spikes on the top of the gate” of Temple Bar. Though the last heads to be displayed on Temple Bar were spiked in 1746, they apparently did not “blow down” until 1772. Thus, though there would have been no heads left on Temple Bar in 1780, the memory of them would be reasonably recent.

The comparison of this barbarism to that of two African peoples – the Abyssinians and the Ashantes (otherwise “Ashantis” or “Ashantees”) – was particularly topical in the 19th century. Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) was a turbulent kingdom. Some stability was achieved in 1855 when Negus Theodore III declared himself emperor of the country, which was divided amongst various political factions; but the British consul of Abyssinia – Walter Chichele Plowden, who was in favor with the emperor – was killed in 1860 by a rebel chieftain while making his way back to England. This event would have tended, from a public point of view, to justify Dickens’ sense of Abyssinian barbarity; and Ashanti barbarism would have been similarly notorious in England. In the 1820s, the British had attempted to mediate between the Ashantis – “one of the Akan peoples of West Africa” living in the northern part of what is now Ghana – and their Fanti neighbors to the south. The British (in possession of a series of forts along the coast) managed a treaty between the Fanti and the Ashanti aggressors in 1820, but it was later disowned by the British governor, Sir Charles McCarthy. McCarthy led a force into Ashanti territory in 1824, but was beaten at the battle of Bonsaso, and his skull became the drinking-cup of the Ashanti king.
(hide spoiler)]

Accordingly, the forger … ; the utterer of a bad note … ; the unlawful opener of a letter …; the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence … ; the holder of a horse at Tellson’s door, who made off with it … ; the coiner of a bad shilling … ; the sounders of three-fourths of the notes in the whole gamut of Crime, were put to Death.
(view spoiler)[
All of the crimes listed here were punishable by death in the 18th century, and the application of the death penalty – there were over two hundred capital crimes on the books – was not reduced until the early 19th century. 40 shillings and sixpence is just over 2 pounds (2 pounds and 6 pence), and is a trifle considering the penalty involved; similarly, a “bad shilling” would be the counterfeit equivalent of 1/20 of an English pound. Dickens’ representation of the absurd rate of execution in London is especially appropriate to the period he represents. In the 1780s (this part of the novel takes place in 1780) the number of convictions and executions in London reached a record high. Five times as many people were convicted in the second half of the 18th century as in the first, and England was more severe than its European neighbors: Between 1774 and 1777, 139 people were executed in London, compared to 32 in Paris; and in the 1780s, the average number of annual executions in London rose from 48 (in the 1770s) to 70, convicts “dang[ling] outside Newgate prison up to 20 at a time, a sight unknown elsewhere.” The death toll did not fall considerably until reforms beginning in the 1820s limited the number of capital crimes. Thus, Dickens’ representation of English brutality in the 18th century – and the implicit contrast he draws to the brutality of the French – is well substantiated by statistics from the period. Indeed, the French look clement in comparison.
(hide spoiler)]

...what are you up to, Aggerawayter?
(view spoiler)[
Mr. Cruncher’s name for his wife, “Aggerawayter,” is probably his version of “Aggravator,” since he believes that her “flopping” – her praying – has been interfering with his business as an “honest tradesman.”
(hide spoiler)]

… if I ain’t, what with piety and one blowed thing and another, been choused this last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a honest tradesman met with!
(view spoiler)[
To be “choused” is to be duped, tricked, cheated, or swindled.
(hide spoiler)]

…I am as rickety as a hackney-coach, I’m as sleepy as laudanum…
(view spoiler)[
A hackney-coach was a horse-drawn version of the modern taxicab – “A four-wheeled coach, drawn by two horses, and seated for six persons, kept for hire.”

Laudanum, a mixture of alcohol and opium now recognized as addictive and dangerous, was not only considered an excellent soporific, but was also used “as a tonic in cases of weak digestion, as a diaphoretic in colds and influenza, and as a diuretic in affections of the kidneys.”
(hide spoiler)]

He greatly disturbed that poor woman at intervals, by darting out of his sleeping closet, where he made his toilet…
(view spoiler)[
Young Jerry Cruncher’s “sleeping closet” is not a closet in the modern sense, but rather a small room “belonging to or communicating with a larger” one, in which he has his bed and other personal belongings. As Ian Watt explains in The Rise of the Novel,

In the medieval period nearly all the life of the household went on in the common hall. Then gradually the private bedroom and separate dining quarters for masters and servants became current; by the eighteenth century [the period to which the Cruncher household belongs] the final refinements of domestic privacy had fully established themselves. There was much more emphasis than before on separate sleeping quarters for every member of the family, and even for the household servants….

Private bedrooms were thus, by the end of the 18th century, a common feature of even humble households like the Crunchers’; and “closets” – small private rooms adjoining larger ones – were an economical way of providing a certain amount of privacy for everyone in the family.

Jerry’s “toilet” refers to the process of washing and dressing himself. Like the word “closet,” “toilet” in modern usage has a second, more common meaning. In the sense used here, the word comes from the French diminutive of the word for cloth or towel, and is pronounced “twa-lette,” with the emphasis on the last syllable.
(hide spoiler)]

… I won’t have my wittles blest off my table. Keep still!
(view spoiler)[
“Wittles” is a corruption of “victuals,” which means food, and is pronounced “vittels” or “vittles.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “the variant O[ld] F[rench] and mod[ern] F[rench] form victuaille has been assimilated to the L[atin] original, and a similar change in spelling has been made in English, while the pronunciation still represents the forms vittel, vittle,” and has been in use since the fourteenth century.
(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Glossary
Book 2, Chapters 1-3 (Part 2 of 2): (view spoiler)[
“You know the Old Bailey well, no doubt?” said one of the oldest clerks to Jerry the messenger.
(view spoiler)[
The Old Bailey is the street in which Newgate Prison and the Sessions House stood. Jerry, sent to the Old Bailey, goes to find Mr. Lorry in the Sessions House, where trials were held. The crimes tried in this court are high and petty treason, murder, felony, forgery, petty larceny, burglary, etc.
(hide spoiler)]

“Treason!” “That’s quartering,” said Jerry. “Barbarous!” “It’s the law,” remarked the ancient clerk, turning his surprised spectacles upon him, “It is the law.”
(view spoiler)[
Darnay’s trial is based on the trial of Francis Henry de la Motte. De la Motte, a French baron residing in England because of financial difficulties, was charged with treason; his trial is reported in the 1781 Annual Register and State Trials. A certain Henry Lutterloh, Esq. of Whickham, informed against de la Motte at his trial, testifying that he had been employed by Mr. de la Motte to procure intelligence respecting British naval operations. The trial lasted 13 hours, when the jury, after a short deliberation, pronounced the prisoner guilty, when sentence was immediately passed upon him, “to be hanged by the neck, but not till dead; then to be cut down, and his bowels taken out and burnt before his face, his head to be taken off, his body cut into four quarters, and to be at his majesty’s disposal.”

Dickens’ version of the de la Motte trial is of course altered: Darnay’s trial predates de la Motte’s by a year (it is held in 1780 instead of 1781), and Darnay is ultimately acquitted. Like de la Motte’s trial, however, Darnay’s coincides with the American Revolution (in which France sided with the American colonies against the English).
(hide spoiler)]

Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him…for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and North America.
(view spoiler)[
“Lewis, the French King” is Louis XVI (r. 1774-93); and “our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King” refers to George III (r. 1760-1820). Darnay is accused of traitorous activity with respect to the American War for Independence, the stirrings of which were already discernible in 1775. (Lucie Manette met Darnay on a boat in 1775, traveling between England and France, and had a conversation that she is expected to represent in court as treasonous on Darnay’s part). By 1780, the time of Darnay’s trial, Britain was losing the war with its American colonies (British forces would surrender the following year, and American independence would be recognized in 1783); moreover, in 1778, France had signed a treaty of alliance with the American colonies, throwing its weight in against its old rival, England. The accusations leveled at Darnay are thus to this effect: Originally a citizen of France, and moving back and forth between France and England without a disclosed purpose during the initial phases of the American War for Independence (in which France would eventually become involved), Darnay is supposed to be a traitor to England. His native affiliation with England’s continental enemy, as well as his supposed sympathy for the cause of England’s colonies, are critical points against him in his trial.
(hide spoiler)]

“He tried to explain to me how that quarrel had arisen, and he said that, so far as he could judge, it was a wrong and foolish one on England’s part. He added, in a jesting way, that perhaps George Washington might gain almost as great a name in history as George the Third.”
(view spoiler)[
The “quarrel” that had arisen by 1775 – the period in which Lucie met Darnay on a boat traveling between France and England (when she was taking her father home to England after his release from the Bastille) – refers to the initial stirrings of what was, by the time of Darnay’s trial (1780), the full-blown Revolutionary War in America. 1773 was the year of the “Boston Tea Party” (a demonstration of colonial resistance to British taxation); in 1775, the first skirmish of the war occurred when British soldiers sent to requisition arms being collected by colonists at Lexington were fired upon; and in 1776 (the year following Lucie’s first encounter with Darnay), America issued its Declaration of Independence. By 1780 (the date of Darnay’s trial), the British were faring badly – they would surrender in 1781 at Yorktown, and would officially recognize America’s independence in 1783 (three years after Darnay’s trial).

George Washington (1732-1799) commanded American forces in the Revolutionary War, and Darnay’s jest to Lucie – that “perhaps George Washington might gain almost as great a name in history as George the Third” – is considered treasonous by the British court in 1780 because it compares a colonial upstart with the reigning monarch of England. In 1780, when England was losing the war with its colonies, such a remark would have seemed flagrantly unpatriotic to English ears. By the time Dickens was writing ATO2C (1859), however, he could refer to “that tremendous heresy about George Washington” with obvious irony. George Washington not only had become a man of rival stature to George III (the English king receded into a state of insanity during the last decade of his reign, whereas George Washington became the first president of the United States [in office 1789-97]), but had achieved some popularity with the English people.
(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]

Book 2, Chapters 4-6: (view spoiler)[
What the two drank together, between Hilary Term and Michaelmas, might have floated a king’s ship.
(view spoiler)[
The English legal year was divided into four “terms” – Hilary Term (January to April), Easter Term (April to May), Trinity Term (June to July), and Michaelmas Term (October to December), with a “Long Vacation” (in which the legal activity of the courts was suspended) from July through October. Courts could continue in session between the terms, though they sometimes changed location during this period. The terms are named after feast-days in the English church calendar. To figure what Carton and Stryver drink together between Hilary and Michaelmas is to reckon the quantity of alcohol consumed in the full course of the legal year.
(hide spoiler)]

He turned into the Temple, and having revived himself by twice pacing the pavements of King’s Bench-walk and Paper-buildings, turned into the Stryver chambers.
(view spoiler)[
The Temple is a complex of buildings between Temple Bar and the Thames, just under and to the west of Fleet Street. Originally named for the Knights Templars – a semi-martial, semi-religious body established in England in the 12th century – the Temple was, by the time of Carton’s stroll, associated with the law. It housed law students and legal practitioners (though it accepted occupants of other professions) and was composed of both private residences and offices. King’s Bench Walk and Paper Buildings are part of the Inner Temple, “facing each other at right angles to the Thames.”
(hide spoiler)]

The old Sydney Carton of old Shrewsbury School…
(view spoiler)[
Shrewsbury School, located in the town of Shrewsbury in the county of Shropshire, is a prestigious English public school. It dates from the 16th century and is still in operation. Public schools in England are more or less equivalent to private institutions in America, funded by private sources and charging fees for entrance and attendance. At the time of Carton’s attendance, public schools specialized in a classical education (including extensive studies in ancient languages – Latin and Greek). In general, Dickens considered such an education impractical, though he sent his own sons to public schools.
(hide spoiler)]

“Even when we were fellow-students in the Quartier Latin, picking up French, and French law, and other French crumbs that we didn’t get much good of, you were always somewhere, and I was always – nowhere.”
(view spoiler)[
The “Quartier Latin” – in English the “Latin Quarter” – is the area on the “Left Bank” in Paris associated with student life. The name derives from the language of the universities – Latin – originally spoken in the Quarter. The Sorbonne – still an operational and quite prestigious institution of learning – is at the heart of the Quartier Latin.
(hide spoiler)]

Miss Pross’s friendship being of the thoroughly practical kind, she had ravaged Soho and the adjacent provinces, in search of impoverished French, who, tempted by shillings and half-crowns, would impart culinary mysteries to her. From these decayed sons and daughters of Gaul…
(view spoiler)[
A large French Protestant population settled in the neighborhood of Soho Square in the 17th century, partly as a result of the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes. (The Edict of Nantes had granted Protestants equal rights with Catholics in 1598, but was subsequently revoked by Louis XIV.) It is apparently the progeny of these emigrants that constitute Dickens’ “decayed sons and daughters of Gaul.”
(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]


Reference Images
Temple Bar in 1870:


Temple Bar today:


Old Bailey (1800s):


Old Bailey today:



Addendum
On "the House" at Telson's.
Map of London, with relative areas of interest for Book 2, Chapters 1-6.
Clarificatory Notes on Charles Darnay’s Trial for Treason.

[Louize]

I have a question I was not able to raise earlier...
(view spoiler)[
How uncanny is the resemblance between Charles and Sydney? Any idea?
(hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

LOUIZE: (view spoiler)[
How uncanny is the resemblance between Charles and Sydney? Any idea?

In the TV drama starring Chris Sarandon, this is how Charles Darnay (left) and Sydney Carton (right) were portrayed.
(view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]
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ANGUS: (view spoiler)[
I have the same observation with regard to my brothers, how each of them reacts to a crisis in very different ways. Thanks for sharing some personal stuff. Really appreciate it.
(hide spoiler)]

ELLA: (view spoiler)[
I hear you. But Charles Dickens was a product of his times, and the fellow had no idea how his work would affect posterity, and how we would suffer his wordiness and his penchant for laborious details. Kaya patawarin mo na siya :)

Perhaps this strong contrast of the lines depicted something good that will come out from something bad.
I like your take on this. Turns out you like Dickens’ work after all, heehee.

Wait, you’ve read Les Miz and that Hugo boss is even more madaldal than our boy Charles here. Ano ba, Ella, you’re unfair. Pareho lang silang madaldal!

Tanong: (view spoiler)[Ang madaldal ba ay galit sa kapwa madaldal? BWAHAHAHAH. (hide spoiler)]
(hide spoiler)]

RONNIE: (view spoiler)[
This novel is an interesting take on mob mentality, really. I’ve always avoided the mob like plague, because situations almost always deteriorate very rapidly around them.

Excellent link on the French Revolution! Thanks for sharing :) You can actually see the tumbrils!

Great for your friend that everything turned out all right. Not many are as blessed.
(hide spoiler)]

MONIQUE: (view spoiler)[
Can you sing "Bring Me To Life" in the F2F? Hihi. How uncanny that the chapter matched the song. Maybe Evanescence took inspiration from the book?

You will soon find out about the three Jacques or head here for hints--- “How goes it, Jacques?” :)

My father died when I was 9, so I know what you and your mother went through. Bless our mothers for their faith and fortitude.
(hide spoiler)]

GWAXA: (view spoiler)[
Perhaps it will help you to put things in perspective if you knew this---Paris at that time had no sewerage (this was before Jean Valjean went under the city of Paris through the sewers) so everything, human and whatever refuse, gets mixed in the mud. And the wine spilled there, and they drank it. Horrifying.
(hide spoiler)]

MELIZA: (view spoiler)[
Just keep reading until your brain gets used to it. Your next classics will be a breeze :)
(hide spoiler)]

TIN: (view spoiler)[
Spot on on your observation about Dickens painting of atmosphere prevalent during the French Revolution. Wait ‘til you get into the thick of the revolution.

LOL on character crisis, real or imagined :)
(hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

Veronica said: “About Dickens’ verbosity, he really needed a good editor but I guess since this is a serialized story, once the chapters were published, he couldn’t go back and edit them.”

This is what it would have been like if Dickens had an editor. Top of the morning to you all!
(view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]

[Gay]

Day 2 Questions
(view spoiler)[1.Dickens was trying to point out the contrasts that were present during that time. Parang foreshadowing din sa coming events in the story. It’s like saying there will always be comparisons and contrasts among the characters.
2.“Recalled to life” meant to me as if there’s someone who gravely needed help to stay alive and it was Lorry’s task to attend to.
3.Nakakalungkot. Nakakairita. It was a survival of the fittest just for a spilled wine. It was dehumanizing.
4.They feed my curiosity. :) (hide spoiler)]

Day 2 Activity
(view spoiler)[My siblings and I. There was a time when everything seemed to be out of control and problematic. That was also the time when my siblings (at least the three of us because my youngest brother was just 5 or 6 years old then) and I were in our teenage years. So basically “exploration era” yun para sa’min. kaya while we are trying to figure out what to do with our lives, we were also trying to figure out how to make things work with the situation we are in. I can say we’ve dealt and are still dealing with it as mature as we can be. haha (hide spoiler)]

DC:
(view spoiler)[The sentence was used pala by Leon Ma. Guerrero (biographer of Jose Rizal). He used it in one the chapters in his book The First Filipino. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

Addendum to the Glossary
Book 2, Chapter 1

This was missed in the glossary, but might confuse you (like the blasted Dover mail), so I’m calling attention to this line (third paragraph):

If your business necessitated your seeing “the House,” you were put into a species of Condemned Hold at the back, where you meditated on a misspent life, until the House came with its hands in its pockets, and you could hardly blink at it in the dismal twilight.

Obviously, the House is a person and refers to the head of the bank. You’ll encounter him again in later scenes in Tellson’s so we might as well be rid of the confusion now :)

[Tin]

DC & YCEL:(view spoiler)[ Ah yun pala yung "Aggerawayter", Aggravator. LOL! Akala ko wine-waiter! waiter! niya yung asawa. And Little Jerry's "toilet"...and "the House". Haha. This book is in codes. Alavet. (hide spoiler)]

DC:(view spoiler)[Oh, too many to mention. Scrap book answer. Haha. Thanks for the b-day greeting!:D (hide spoiler)]

[Louize]

Thank you, Ycel!

[Ycel]

Addendum to Reference Images
Because Book 2, chapters 1 to 6 are all happening in London.

[DC]

Posting up a question for Day 3 in a spoiler tag, as it may come across as spoiler-ish for some :)

Day 3 Questions
1. (view spoiler)[The English court establishes that Sydney and Charles's physical similarity is reason enough to assume that it wouldn’t be just to hang Charles for treason. Does this make sense to you?
(hide spoiler)]
2. Why did Dickens describe Stryver as “the lion” and Carton as “the jackal”?

[Tin]

Day 3 Questions

1.(view spoiler)[ In a way yeah. I am not sure if I got it right but what Sydney was getting at was that the witness could have been mistaken. The person he was referring to, could have been anyone, but Darnay. I am not entirely convinced though that he was acquitted on that basis. I thought the whole resemblance thing, wasn't weighty enough. It made sense, but not enough. Plus, I initally pegged the court to be a bit closed minded and have already decided to convict Dansay even before Stryver made his case. Because I sense that the at that time, of the French Revolution, they weren't exactly dispensing proper justice, that much. (hide spoiler)]

2.(view spoiler)[ The lion symbolizes pride, the front man, the famous and showy one. Which is what Stryver seems to be. The Jackal, I was kind of confused by. Since nature shows, show that they are the scavengers. They eat the already picked-out carcasses left by the bigger predators like the lions. When in Stryver's and Carton's case, The former is the one who relies on the latter. Then again, maybe it's this way. Since Stryver pays Carton for his help, Carton is still Jackal because he relies on the cases and the money from Stryver in order to live? (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Day 3 Questions
(view spoiler)[1. After reading about this scene at the court, I immediately told this to a friend and asked him if something like this could really happen during those times; he said he doesn't know. Haha! Since I asked him, it means I find it a bit absurd.

2. Even before you posted this question, I already looked for some explanations about the lion and the jackal references after I read it. I read that Dickens could have used some irony in here since Carton is more lion than Stryver and vice versa. Or maybe Tin is right in saying that Carton still relies on Stryver in order to live. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Day 3 Questions
(view spoiler)[
1. For a man to be found guilty, his guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. No ifs, buts or maybes, the proof must show he is guilty. When Stryver presents Sydney Carton as a Darnay lookalike, he is saying that it could be a case of mistaken identity, that Lucie cannot be a hundred percent sure it was Darnay she spoke with on the boat. So the court cannot convict Darnay based on the evidence presented.

I knew there was a reason I watch Law and Order reruns but I'm sure Monique can explain it better. :)

2. As far as I know (thank you, dictionary), the idiomatic definition for a jackal is one who does menial jobs for another. Carton is the one who does the legal briefs for Stryver to use in the case. In my further research (thank you, Wikipedia), I learned lions rarely hunt actively. They depend on the lionesses and other predator animals to hunt and kill prey for them. So in that way, Stryver is lion to Carton’s jackal.
(hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

Day 3 Questions

(view spoiler)[
1. It made sense in the sense that the traitor is hard to identify, that it could have been Charles, or Sydney, or anyone else. But it's not sensible enough to be the reason for acquittal.
2. Because Stryver has the ambition. He wants the exalted life, like that of a lion's. Whereas Carton is seemingly contented being under the shadows of someone else. A sidekick. A jackal. (Merriam-Webster defines it as a person who performs routine or menial tasks for another.)

(hide spoiler)]

[Gwaxa]

Day 3 Questions

(view spoiler)[
1. It made sense because I saw it as a strategy on the part of Stryver to question the integrity of the witness, thus making the jury doubt his claims. Although, I agree with the others that it's not weighty enough to be the reason for the acquittal.

2. At first, it confused me why the term "jackal". Then upon searching its meaning, it made sense. Sydney and Stryver even talked about how it has always been Sydney who was in the background and Stryver was always "shouldering" his way on everything even when they were younger. So the lion (Stryver) is the king or ruler while the jackal (Sydney) is the person in the background doing the "dirty" deeds.
(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

To those who doubt the reason for the acquittal: (view spoiler)[
I find it interesting that a number of you think that the argument about physical similarities was not enough to acquit Charles.

However, since Veronica mentioned something about Law & Order reruns, and I have just read an article about this lawyer who had a "Perry Mason moment"...

Do you believe that this argument may actually be a "more valid" one today? Or not? Why so?
(hide spoiler)]

Thank you also to those who added their thoughts about the jackal/lion reference, as well as noting their definitions, based on what you have researched. I think an interesting note here would also be the lion-ish pride of Stryver, which may be of interest in the succeeding chapters :)

BTW, Gay: (view spoiler)[Thanks! Now I have a great reason to go over my copy of The First Filipino again :D (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

Clarificatory Notes on Charles Darnay’s Trial for Treason
(view spoiler)[
Charles Darnay was acquitted because of the following reasons:

1. The witnesses against Darnay were disreputable characters.

John Barsad, presented by the Attorney-General as a pure and righteous character, was revealed to have served time in debtor’s prison and has been involved in brawls over gambling. Roger Cly was also exposed as a dubious, untrustworthy witness.

2. There is doubt about the identity of the accused.

· The prosecution asked Mr. Lorry if, five years ago, he shared a Dover mail coach with the accused (remember the Dover mail chapter?). Lorry could not confirm this because his fellow passengers sat so bundled up that their identities remained hidden.

· Doctor Manette was also called to the stand, but he claimed that he remembered nothing of the trip due to his illness.

· In fact, Lucie’s testimony is the only one that posed a problem for Darnay because of her reporting his statement that George Washington’s fame might one day match that of George III.

· Mr. Stryver drew the court’s attention to Carton’s own uncanny resemblance to the prisoner. The undeniable likeness foils the court’s ability to identify Darnay as a spy beyond reasonable doubt.

All these points, taken together, made the jury retire to deliberate and eventually returned with an acquittal for Darnay.

Dickens has been criticized for the outcome of Darnay’s treason trial because it relies too much on coincidence. However, we should keep in mind that in this book, Dickens is obsessed with duality, so it is not surprising that he utilized this angle (e.g., Darnay and Carton's resemblance).

Is it too much coincidence that Darnay and Carton look alike? Consider this very recent article where a photographer shows proof of shocking similarities in human templates between complete strangers.

And if that is not enough to show that fact is stranger than fiction, consider these 5 mind-blowing cases of mistaken identity by the police.
(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

[Reading Plan Day 7-8: Book 2, Chapters 7-9]

From the busy Old Bailey, we visit a French chateau. We also meet a distinguished personage, and discover a curious note from Jacques. The two cities are being brought before us, with comparisons and contrasts, and an interesting common factor.

As per usual, here is our glossary for the noted chapters, as well as our guide questions.

Glossary
Book 2, Chapters 7-9: (view spoiler)[
Monsieur the Marquis in Town
(view spoiler)[
The French “Monsieur,” essentially equivalent to “Mr.” in English, was originally a title reserved for men of elevated station (Oxford English Dictionary). “Marquis” is an aristocratic title originally accorded to those who ruled the “marches” of a country (marches are border or boundary territories), and subsequently to any noblemen “ranking below a duke and above a count.” In Dickens’ own time and country, a marquis ranked below a duke and above an earl (an earl being the English equivalent of a count); the equivalent female rank, in English, was marchioness.
Titles of English and French Nobility
(hide spoiler)]

Monseigneur was in his inner room...
(view spoiler)[
“Monseigneur,” which means literally “My Lord,” is an honorific title for a person of eminence – originally (in the medieval period) an honorific title for a saint, but afterwards attaching generally to a person of elevated condition. Here, the use of the title “Monseigneur” (to the exclusion of any further identification) indicates that the gentleman discussed is not only aristocratic, but superior to the Marquis (who is a mere “monsieur”).
(hide spoiler)]

Deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three men…
(view spoiler)[
Translated as: “He would have brought great shame to his family crest if he had had only three servants.”
(hide spoiler)]

A happy circumstance for France, as the like always is for all countries similarly favoured!—always was for England (by way of example), in the regretted days of the merry Stuart who sold it.
(view spoiler)[
Translated as: “This wasn’t good for France, as it’s never good for a country to be ruled by frivolous leaders, like when the merry Stuart ruled England.” The son of Charles I (executed in the English Civil War) and a French mother, King Charles II (r. 1660-85), of the House of Stuart, was closely connected with France (Louis XIV being his first cousin). After Oliver Cromwell defeated Charles I, Charles II fled and spent much of his exile in France. A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles II was invited to return to Britain. He received a secret pension from Louis XIV to help fund his administration, since Parliament – which had gained in power during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth period – limited the powers and purse of the newly-restored monarch. Known as the “merry Monarch,” the levity and flamboyance of the “Restoration” period owed much to the tastes of Charles II, among which were mistresses and French theatre.
(hide spoiler)]

…allied himself perforce with the Farmer-General.
(view spoiler)[
The “Farmers-General” were French tax collectors, who, under the old French monarchy, “farmed” the taxes of a particular district. Responsible for furnishing the government with a predetermined amount of money, the Farmers-General collected taxes from the people at their own discretion. Widely distrusted, they were often suspected of fleecing their countrymen – collecting more taxes than they sent to the government coffers.
(hide spoiler)]

Projectors who had discovered every kind of remedy for the little evils with which the State was touched, except the remedy of setting to work in earnest to root out a single sin, poured their distracting babble into any ears they could lay hold of, at the reception of Monseigneur. Unbelieving Philosophers who were remodeling the world with words, and making card-towers of Babel to scale the skies with, talked with Unbelieving Chemists who had an eye on the transmutation of metals…
(view spoiler)[
In the sense used here, “projectors” are theorists – mainly economists and philosophers, or, in French, philosophes. Among the most famous of the French 18th-century philosophes were Voltaire and Diderot. Dickens, like Carlyle (his chief historical source), disapproved of the growing atheism of pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France (in which the “unbelieving philosophers” are implicated). The pious and biblical references in this passage – the idea that the “projectors” should neglect to “root out a single sin,” and the comparison of their discourse to the unintelligible chatter associated with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) – emphasize Dickens’ disapprobation. Dickens’ “Unbelieving Chemists” are the pseudo-scientific alchemists, seeking to turn base metal into gold by dint of the undiscovered “philosopher’s stone.” Alchemists and atheism figure in Mercier’s Tableau de Paris – one of Dickens’ French sources for ATO2C.
(hide spoiler)]

…half of the half-dozen had become members of a fantastic sect of Convulsionists, and were even then considering within themselves whether they should foam, rage, roar, and turn cataleptic on the spot….
(view spoiler)[
The Convulsionists were a group of religious enthusiasts in France (“les convulsionaires”), so-called for the “convulsions” they performed under divine inspiration.
(hide spoiler)]

…the one woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting, still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate.
(view spoiler)[
In mythology, Fate is the goddess (or one of the goddesses) of destiny. In Greek mythology, the Fates were a trio of goddesses – Clotho (“spinner”), Lachesis (“measurer”), and Atropos (“inexorable”). Clotho was said to spin the thread of life, Lachesis to draw it out to a certain length, and Atropos to cut it off. In light of this tradition of “spinning,” the knitting of Fate-like Madame Defarge echoes the vocation of her classical predecessors.
(hide spoiler)]

…the tax for the state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, the tax local and tax general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to solemn inscription in the little village, until the wonder was, that there was any village left unswallowed.
(view spoiler)[
One of the chief grievances of the poor in pre-revolutionary France was the exorbitant and unequally levied set of taxes to which the common people were subject. Ironically, the greatest number of taxes fell upon the poorest of the French, while the aristocracy and clergy resisted taxation. For example, in 1776, the Controller-General of Finance suggested that the nobility and clergy should be taxed in order to help remedy the growing French national deficit; his advice met with so much indignation that the taxes were not imposed, and he himself was dismissed.
(hide spoiler)]

“Pardon, Monseigneur; he swung by the chain of the shoe – the drag.”
(view spoiler)[
The “drag” is the braking mechanism used by carriages, especially to impede the motion of the vehicle as it travels downhill (to prevent undue acceleration); a “shoe” in this sense is an early kind of brake shoe.
(hide spoiler)]

"I believe that if you were not in disgrace with the court, and had not been overshadowed by that cloud for years past, a letter de cachet would have sent me to some fortress indefinitely."
(view spoiler)[
The lettre de cachet was a notorious instrument of arbitrary power in pre-revolutionary France. “De cachet” means “of the seal” (referring to the personal seal of the French monarch), and a “lettre de cachet” or “letter of the seal” referred to “a warrant issued in the France of the ancien régime (the old regime, before the French Revolution) for the imprisonment of a person without trial at the pleasure of the monarch.”
(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]


Day 4 Questions:
1. What is the significance of the “echoing footsteps” in Chapter 6?
2. What are your thoughts about Monsieur the Marquis, and of the consequent unfortunate event that befell him?

[Monique]

Day 3 Questions:
(view spoiler)[
1. Why, yes it does. If the physical similarities between Darnay and Carton are established, it means the defense has created reasonable doubt, and that's enough basis for an acquittal. In criminal cases such as for treason, what the prosecutors are required to establish is proof beyond reasonable doubt - in Tagalog, walang kaduda-dudang siya ang gumawa ng krimen - so much that if there's the smallest iota of uncertainty in this respect, the accused must be acquitted. There need not be other bases, in fact, for acquittal - never mind the disreputable characters of the other witnesses. Just one small snag in the prosecution's case - in Darnay's case, that it is possible that is wasn't him in view of his physical similarities with Carton - justifies acquittal.

2. I'm not sure about the similarities and differences between a lion and a jackal with respect to how they hunt and all that jazz, but I think because Stryver was the "bigger" lawyer, he was the lion, and Carton, being the "smaller" character compared to Stryver, is the jackal. (hide spoiler)]

[Louize]

Day 3 Questions:
(view spoiler)[
1. I believe that it did made sense. I'm no lawyer and have no idea how courts proceed in those times, but I am sure that, foremost, identity of the defendant should be undoubtedly established. Second, witnesses should be reputable. If both have not been satisfied, there is no case.

2. The lion fits Stryver perfectly I think. The lion, is dubbed King of the Jungle because of its majestic mane, it's all for appearance. In truth, lions lack the cunning and intelligence of other predators (they are lazy too). Yet, despite of that, he get to have the biggest share of the hunt. Stryver reaps all the glory from Carton's hard work, investigation, and intelligence.

Meanwhile, the jackal's aim is survival, at any cost. The jackal appeared in the Bible to represent the cunning and duplicity of men; the selfishness of one who prowls unseen by night and hides by day. One whose deeds are hidden, whose motivations remain secret; one who prefers the wastelands that hide ill deeds, and who refuses to live openly in the light. Jackals are notoriously hard to read. On the outside they often look bored, disinterested, and lazy. On the inside, however, they are constantly re-evaluating situations and making plans for the future. No wonder Carton felt so low in Lucie's presence, for a long time he lived this way. I wonder what made him this way?

Or maybe, Dickens was not a fan of Egyptology, because Anubis is another level altogether. (hide spoiler)]

[Tin]

Day 4 Questions:
1.(view spoiler)[They keep repeating "echoing footsteps" so it means it is a foreboding of some sort. I think it's the French Revolution. I keep imagining a mob with pitchforks, feathers and tar. A mob of Jacques, to be exact. And since I finished reading chapter 15 this morning. I now have a guess as to why said mob will enter Lucie's life.(view spoiler)[ "The chateau, and all the race." "Extermination." Kay Sydney nalang kaya siya. Hehe (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

2.(view spoiler)[Si Monsieur the Marquis ay parang kontrabida sa soap opera. Hehe. I found him to be pretty abrasive and extremely douchey. And since I am past chapter 9, I now know what his death meant.(view spoiler)[ The start of the Revolution. (hide spoiler)] ♪"Do you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men?"♪...Question, is Les Mis set in the same time period as this one? (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Day 4 Questions:
(view spoiler)[1. Lucie said in chapter 6 that she listened and made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming into their lives. Carton mentioned of "a great crowd". Darnay asked, "Are all these footsteps destined to come to all of us, or are we to divide them among us?" I believe these statements suggest an event wherein they will encounter a crowd of people in their lives; and I suspect terrible times. I finished Book 2 by the way, so (view spoiler)[I already read chapter 21: Echoing Footsteps. There are raging and loud echoing of footsteps of the people in Saint Antoine. So this means that Lucie, Darnay and Carton will eventually be involved in the revolution? (hide spoiler)]

2. Monsieur the Marquis was a very cruel man. I think he represents the majority of the French aristocrats whom the people despise that time. I can't say that he deserves what happened to him but I don't pity him either. (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

TIN:(view spoiler)[
ATO2C begins in 1757 when Dr. Manette was imprisoned, while Les Miz begins in 1815 when Valjean was released from prison.
(hide spoiler)]

[Tin]

Ycel:(view spoiler)[Oh, okay. So that means Les Mis wasn't set during the French Revolution. And the Friends of ABC started another kind of uprising. Got it. Thanks Ycel! (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Louize wrote: "I wonder what made him this way?"

This is actually an interesting question, and could be something to discuss as we go along :)


Monique wrote: "Why, yes it does. If the physical similarities between Darnay and Carton are established, it means the defense has created reasonable doubt, and that's enough basis for an acquittal. In criminal cases such as for treason, what the prosecutors are required to establish is proof beyond reasonable doubt - in Tagalog, walang kaduda-dudang siya ang gumawa ng krimen - so much that if there's the smallest iota of uncertainty in this respect, the accused must be acquitted. There need not be other bases, in fact, for acquittal - never mind the disreputable characters of the other witnesses. Just one small snag in the prosecution's case - in Darnay's case, that it is possible that is wasn't him in view of his physical similarities with Carton - justifies acquittal.

Thank you, Monique, for the inputs. I believe it's helpful for us non-law specialists :)


Tin: Mob of Jacques... Nice note. And, haha, #TeamSydney! :)


Meliza wrote: ""Are all these footsteps destined to come to all of us, or are we to divide them among us?""

I love that you noted this. Great observation :)

As for your mention of the footsteps in Saint Antoine, and their involvement in the revolution... (view spoiler)[SPOILER ALERT(view spoiler)[I can only say that they sure going deep in the mire :(
... But I'd love to see your reaction once they do :)
(hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

[Reading Plan Day 9-10: Book 2, Chapters 10-13]

These chapters are, I believe, among the most amusing, and most mushy in the book. Perhaps it is time to take sides? #TeamCharles, #TeamSydney, #TeamStryver, represent? :) (I suppose it's also the time to gush a little bit.)

I also find it amusing that "Lucie" was the name of one of Charles Dickens' ladyloves, and here we see that there's a man connected to Lucie named Charles. Initials are CD, too.


Glossary
Book 2, Chapters 10-13: (view spoiler)[
Sydney was none the livelier and none the soberer for so much application. It had taken a deal of extra wet-toweling to pull him through the night; a correspondingly extra quantity of wine had preceded the toweling; and he was in a very damaged condition, as he now pulled his turban off and threw it into the basin in which he had steeped it at intervals for the last six hours.
(view spoiler)[
Carton’s remedy – the application of a wet towel – is still practiced today. Such a bandage helps constrict throbbing blood vessels (Camlot, Treating a Hangover).

(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Day 4 Questions:
(view spoiler)[
1. The sound of echoing footsteps is one of the many metaphors Dickens uses in this chapter to serve as a portent of things to come. The quiet nature of the house and the imminent storm literally translates into “the quiet before the storm.” Something terrible is going to happen and the echoing footsteps tell us that it involves a great crowd of people. Dickens is preparing the reader for the effect of the French Revolution on the lives of the characters.

2. And the metaphors continue. :) The Marquis represents the decadent, self-indulgent lifestyle of the French nobility at that time. They are callously indifferent to the plight of the poor as seen by the Marquis’ reaction when his carriage fatally runs over a peasant child. Defarge makes an ironic comment that the child is better off dead. Again, it is a portent of things to come. Defarge’s comment tells us the peasants have reached the “kapit sa patalim” point. They're not afraid to die anymore. The murder of the Marquis by a “Jacques” symbolizes the fate of the French nobility at the hands of the peasants during the French Revolution.


Side comment: (view spoiler)[ Listening to the audiobook, I can see how this book is a challenge to narrate. Dickens writes such looong sentences you can actually hear the reader take a deep breath before starting on the next sentence. Haha. :D
(hide spoiler)]
(hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

MONIQUE:(view spoiler)[
Been waiting for your legal opinion. Thanks for sharing your expertise :)
(hide spoiler)]

LOUIZE: (view spoiler)[
Thanks for a very thorough explanation of the jackal. I didn't even know about the biblical reference. Your description fits Carton to a tee :)
(hide spoiler)]

TIN:(view spoiler)[
Team Sydney FTW!
(hide spoiler)]

MELIZA:(view spoiler)[
You'll find out what the echoing footsteps mean soon enough :)
(hide spoiler)]

RONNIE:(view spoiler)[
I love the audio! Ang galing, especially when he does the French characters. This is my favorite version of the audio so far (though I wonder how the Simon Vance version is). I've listened up to the end countless times and I always bawl in the car. Sigh.
(hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Ycel, Frank Muller is one of my favorite narrators and one of the best in the industry. I always seek out audiobooks that he's read. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago from a motorcycle accident. So this is a great addition to your collection. You can listen to a snippet of Simon Vance's reading at Audible.com. :)

[Tin]

Ycel and DC: Go Team Sydney! (view spoiler)[

House sigil: Black jackal on a field of yellow

House motto: Drink and be merry for tomorrow you'll die

Theme song: Pink's Raise Your Glass

"Raise your glass (<-drinking reference) if you are wrong,
In all the right ways
All my underdogs(<-jackal reference)
We will never be, never be....

Cable TV Channel of choice: Carton Network. Aaaaaaarghhhh. Ang aga aga nang-gugulo ako. Mag lolog-out na nga ako. (hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

Day 4 Questions:
(view spoiler)[
1. I think it symbolizes a foreboding, a disquiet, a premonition of things to come. It's supposed to stir apprehension in the reader's mind.

2. I think he is the epitome of the bourgeois, of the excesses of those times. He is also a first-class asshole. How can anyone not feel any remorse - any emotion at all! - if your carriage runs over a child?! His indifference first confounded me, and then annoyed me that I actually laughed out loud when I realized what "Jacques" did to him. Death in the hands of the "lesser people" you've been looking down on - sweet! (hide spoiler)]

Oh, and I'm for Team (view spoiler)[SYDNEY! (hide spoiler)] I'm always for the underdog! \m/ TIN, lumalabas ang GoT influence ah, haha! Let's drink to that with a glass of Arbor gold! :D

[Gwaxa]

Day 4 Questions

(view spoiler)[
1. I think it signifies that a crowd will come or have already come at some point in the story. The crowd who seeks Doctor Manette's medical expertise, the crowd (of three!) who seeks Lucie's love, and maybe, the crowd of the French revolution. It's all very symbolic of Mr. Dickens.

2. I call him Monsieur Asshole. He sees the common people as vermin and not worth his notice. He's very cruel and upon reading the chapter in the chateau, I noticed that the "dogs" he mentioned were actually the servants or the common people. Or was I wrong? Basta, ang sama nya. Though, I understand that he was a necessary evil. :) And what happened to him? I was actually questioning it since I already accepted him as the necessary evil. I thought he would be the villain. Hmmmm... I'm not asking for a spoiler, though. (hide spoiler)]

I have a question: (view spoiler)[It was mentioned that Sydney Carton had to use a wet towel wrapped around his forehead before drinking with Stryver. It was once again mentioned that a lot of "wet towelling" for drinking a lot of wine was needed when he had to finish all of Stryver's affairs before the break. Why does he do that? Is it some sort of strategy to drink more? Or is it something medical? Curious lang ako. Haha. (hide spoiler)]