Language and Literature: Detail View

1)

What happened to Dickens at the age of twelve that causes what he called "the secret agony of my soul"?

He was sent to work at a (blacking) factory (when his father was imprisoned for debt).

2)

What pen name did Dickens use early in his career?

Boz

3)

Which of Dickens' books has Ebenezer Scrooge as its main character?

A christmasCarol

4)

Which Dickens novel concerns characters named pip and Miss Havisham?

Great Expectations

5)

What year did Dickens die?

1870

6)

Who was the author of The Frozen Deep, the play whose situation resembles that of Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton?

Wilkie Collins

7)

Who was most likely the inspiration for lucie Manette?

Ellen Ternan

8)

In what year was A Tale of Two Cities first published in serial form?

1859

9)

Who is the author of the history of the French Revolution upon which Dickens based A Tale of Two Cities?

Thomas Carlyle

10)

What was the ancien regime?

The political/ social system in France before the Revolution

11)

Which king of France reigned and was guillotined during the French Revolution?

Louis XVI

12)

Who was Citizen Louis Capet?

King Louis XVI, renamed after being dethroned

13)

During what decade did the French Tevolution reach its height?

The 1790s

14)

What political events in 1848 led to the fear that history night repeat itself?

Europe saw a wave of revolutions.

15)

What is the translation of the name "Lucie"?

"light"

16)

What experience in America influenced Dickens' portrayal of Doctor Manette's experience?

Dickens visited prisons, especially one where he saw the results of solitary confinement.

17)

Madame Defarge resembles a genuine French revolutionary woman, Theroigne de Mericour. How did this real woman spend her final years?

In an insane asylum

18)

What is the traditional nickname for French peasants?

Jacques

19)

The loadstone in Book the Second, chapter 24, is paralleled by the tale of the loadstone in the Arabian Nights. What does the Arabian Nights; loadstone do to ships?

It draws them to their destruction

20)

The biblical Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are paralleled by what four figures of destruction in A Tale of Two Cities?

The four men setting out to burn the chateau

21)

How does the famous opening of A Tale of Two Cities begin? Complete the two phrases that begin "It was...."

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

22)

What is the three-word "blazing strange message" that Mr. Lorry gives to the messenger on horseback at the opening of A Tale of Two Cities?

"recalled to life"

23)

Why are the passengers in the coach scared of the messenger and of anyone who might approach the coach during their journey?

They are aftraid they might be highwaymen (robbers of criminals).

24)

When did Mr. Lorry meet Miss Manette before he meets her again in the inn at Dover?

He accompanied her across the Channel when she was a small girl.

25)

Why did Miss Manette's mother let her think her father had died?

She wanted her not to suffer the uncertainty of not knowing the fate of her father

26)

When the wine-cask spills on the Paris street, what does someone write on the wall in wine?

The word "BLOOD"

27)

Monsieur Defarge does what kind of job for a living?

He has a wine shop

28)

When Mr. Lorry and Miss Manette go up to see Doctor Manette on Monsieur Defarge's premises in Paris, they meet three men outside Doctor Manette's door. What have the three men been doing there?

Looking at Doctor Manette through some holes in the wall

29)

When miss Manette first goes in to see her father in Paris. he is very busy doing something-- what is he doing?

Making shoes

30)

When Monsieur Defarge asks Doctor manette his name, what kind of answer does Doctor Manette give?

He gives his cell number of location (from the Bastille).

31)

In prison, Doctor Manette has been wearing a scrap of cloth on a piece of string around his neck. What does the scrap contain?

A few strands of hair

32)

In speaking of the law at the time, A Tale of Two Cities states satirically that since Nature has a remedy for all things, why shouldn't Legislation have the same remedy? what is that "remedy for all things"?

Death.

33)

When Jerry Cruncher's wife is doing what he calls "flopping," what is she really doing?

Praying

34)

What does Jerry Cruncher have on his fingers, which he can't have acquired in his job at Tellson's Bank, and which his son wonders about?

Rust

35)

What is the name of the place where Charles Darnay is tried for treason?

The Old Bailey

36)

Why are the spectators fascinated by the sight and trial of Charles Darnay?

Because of the horrible punishment that will be levied if he is convicted

37)

Where did Charles Darnay first meet Miss Manette?

On board a ship (the packet from Calais)

38)

When Charles Darnay first met Miss Manette, what joking remard did he make about George Washington?

That one day he might be as notable in history as George the Third.

39)

Why is Doctor Manette unable to testify about the first time he and Miss manette met Charles Darney?

Because he had not yet "recovered his faculties" after his time in the Bastille (he has no memory of that journey to England"

40)

Who are John Barsad and Roger Cly when we first meet them? What is their role in the earliest part of the book?

They are two witnesses who testify against Charles Darnay at his trial

41)

In Charles Darnay's trial, his counsel points something out which makes the witness surprised and possible unsure whether he had identified the right man after all. What is it that the counsel points out?

How much the accused, Charles Darnay looks like another man (Sydney Carton)

42)

What does Miss Manette do that leads Mr. Carton to have her helped out of the courtroom during the trial?

She droops or looks as if she might collapse or faint.

43)

Where do Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton go together after Charles Darnay is acquitted?

They go to a tavern

44)

After eating dinner, Carton and Darnay offer a toast-- to whom or what?

To Miss Manette

45)

In the descriptions of Sidney Carton's idleness and direputable ways, he is often repeatedly referred to as what kind of animal?

A jackal.

46)

What does Stryver mean when he calls Sydney Carton "seesaw Sydney"?

That Sydney veers between cheerfulness and despondency.

47)

How did styver and Carton first get to know each other?

They were students together

48)

What does Doctor Manette keep in the corner of his room in London?

His shoemaking euipment

49)

Who raised Lucie Manette from the age of then until her father returned to London?

Miss Pross

50)

What strange acoustical property does Doctor Manette's home in London have?

It has many echoes

51)

What is the topic of the story told by Charles Darnay that startled Doctor Manette so badly in his London house?

It concerns a message buried by a prisoner.

52)

Monseigneur the Marquis us so exalted that he requires four servants merely to do what?

To carry his hot chocolate to him

53)

When the Marquis' carriage kills a small child, how does the Marquis attempt to compensate for the death?

He throws out money

54)

As the Marquis is driving away from the scene of the child's death, what is he suddenly disturbed by in his carriage?

The gold coin thrown into the carriage

55)

As the Marquis and his carriage leave the scene of the accident, and the other carriages roll by on the way to the Fancy Ball, they are all steadily observed by a woman. What is the woman doing as she watches?

Knitting

56)

The Marquis stops a road-mender and asks him why he had been looking so fixedly at the Marquis' carriage. What had the road-mender been looking at?

A man who had been holding onto part of the bottom of the carriage.

57)

What does the woman at the cemetery plead with the Marquis to provide?

A headstone or other monument to identify her husband's grave

58)

The Marquis tells Charles Darnay, "For the honour of the family, I could even resolve to incommode youto that extent." What drastic action does he say he would be prepared to take to restrain Charles?

To have Charles imprisoned

59)

What exact relation was Charles' father to the Marquis?

They were twin brothers

60)

What is the new "stone face" added to the chateau in the night?

The dead face of the Marquis

61)

How does Charles Darnay support himself in England?

He tutors students

62)

Charles Darnay wants to confide an important fact to Doctor Manette, but Doctor Manette tells him to wait until his wedding day. What is the important fact Darnay wants to confide?

His true name and why he is in england

63)

Who is the person whose funeral is observed by Jerry Cruncher and his son?

Roger (Cly)

64)

In A Tale of Two Cities, what is the contemporary term used for men who dig up dead bodies to sell to scientists?

"resurrection-men"

65)

Why did the man who killed the Marquis do so?

The murder occurred in response to the child being run down.

66)

Where does madame Defarge keep the register of the names of men designated to die?

It is part of the design of her knitting

67)

How do the local people know not to come into Madame Defarge's shop when she is engaging with someone suspicious?

She wears a rose as a sign

68)

How did Monsieur Defarge first come to be acquainted with Doctor Manette?

He used to be Doctor Manette's servant.

69)

What information does John Barsad tell Madame Defarge that disconccerts her and her husband?

That Lucie Manette is going to marry Charles Darnay

70)

After John Barsad departs the wine-shop, Monsieur Defarge observes Barsad's name in Madame Defarge's register, next to what other important name?

Charles Darnay's name

71)

What discovery alarms Miss Pross after Lucie and Charles have departed on their honeymoon?

That Doctor Manette is making shoes again (and does not know her)

72)

Why does Doctor Manette think that after his recent episode, he will not be subject to further episodes of his old dishonor?

Because the circumstances that caused the relapse are extraordinary and probably won't occur again.

73)

What do Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry do, with Doctor Manette's permission, to ensure he will not relapse into one of his episodes again?

They destroy his shoemaking bench and equipment

74)

Charles dismisses Sydney Carton as "a problem of carelessness and recklessness." How does Lucie repond to Charles?

She says she knos Carton deserves more respect.

75)

Mr. Lorry reports that the "uneasiness in Paris" has had what effect on Tellson's Bank?

Their French costomers are moving their wealth to the bank.

76)

During the storming of the Bastille, where does Monsieur Defarge insist he be taken?

To Doctor Manette's old cell. (105, North Tower)

77)

Who cuts off the head of the governor of the Bastille?

Madame Defarge

78)

What did Foulon do to incur the wrath of the poor?

He said that those who were famished should eat grass

79)

The mender of roads meets a traveller who asks him the way-- what does the traveller aim to do when he reaches his destination?

To set fire to the chateau

80)

Why does Gabelle send a letter to Charles Darnay?

He asks for help because he has been imprisoned (for minding Darnay's property)

81)

When Charles Darnay returns to france, he finds that a decree has been passed relating to emigrants. What does that decree require?

That the property of emigrants will be sold

82)

By what name do his French "escorts" call Charles Darnay when he has returned to France?

Evremonde

83)

What is the name of the prison in which Charles Darnay is confined on his return to France?

La Force

84)

Back in Paris, Doctor Manette says that on one in the cityy would harm him. Why is this?

Because he has been a prisoner in the Bastille

85)

Referring to what is going on in the courtyard in front of the house where the Manettes first stay in Paris, Dickens writes, "such awful workers, and such awful work!" what are the workers doing in the courtyard?

Using a grindstone to sharpen weapons

86)

What are the assembled people in front of the Manette' Paris house doing with their sharpened weapons?

Murdering prisoners

87)

When Monsier Defarge insists that Madame Defarge accomany himself and Mr. Lory to the house where Lucie waits, what reason does he give?

So that Madame Defarge can identify the family for their safety

88)

Who accompanies Monsieru and Madame Defarge to the Manettes' house in Paris?

The Vengeance

89)

When Lucie begs Madame Defarge, "as a wife and mother," not to cause harm to Charles, how does Madame Defarge reply?

That many wives and mothers have suffered and seen their men imprisoned, and no one helped them

90)

Doctor Manette spends four days away from Lucie working to free Charles from prison, and during that time news is kept from Lucie. What news is it that is concealed from her?

The huge number of prisoners that have been murdered

91)

How does Doctor Manette change as a result of his new position as the physician in charge of three French prisons?

He develops pride

92)

Who or what is the new "sharp female" whose image is worn when crosses have been discarded, at the height of the Terror?

The Guillotine

93)

How long was Charles Darnay in prison in Paris?

One year and 3 months

94)

What is the former occupation of the wood-sawer who usually watches when Lucie goes to stand under the prison window hoping Charles can glimpse her?

He used to be a mender of roads

95)

By law, how are people required to address each other during the Terror, when meeting and talking?

As "citizen"

96)

What is the Carmagnole?

A popular song and/or dancce of the people during the revolution

97)

Of the fifteen prisoners put on trial before Charles Darnay, how many are condemed?

All of them

98)

What information causes the spectators of Charles' French prison trial to exclaim in happiness?

The information that he is married to the daughter of Doctor Manette

99)

What is the color of the Revolution, found on revolutionary caps, flags and elsewhere?

Red

100)

Of doctor Manette, Dickens writes, "He had accomplished the task he had set himself, his promise was redeemed." What task is it that redeems him?

Freeing Charles Darnay from prison and death

101)

After being freed from prison, Charles Darnay is denounced by three citizens, one of whom is anonymous. Who are the other two?

Monsieur and Madame Defarge

102)

Who or what causes Miss Pross to scream in the wine-shop?

She recognizes her brother

103)

Who suddenly appears and identifies Solomon Pross as the same man as John Barsad?

Sydney Carton

104)

When Sydney Carton is "playing his cards" against Mr. Barsad, he shows that the French might easily suspect Barsad of something criminal. What, accourding to Carton, might the French suspect?

That he is a spy in the service of the English government

105)

How did Jerry Cruncher come to have knowledge about the fate of Roger Cly?

As a "Resurrection-Man," Cruncher dug up the coffin of Roger Cly and found it filled with stones.

106)

After arranging to get in to teh prison to see Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton implores one thing relating to Lucie of Mr. Lorry. What does he ask of Mr. Lorry?

Not to tell Lucie that he made this arrangement

107)

Who is the mysterious third party who is declared to have denounced Charles Darnay?

Doctor Manette (in the letter hidden in his cell)

108)

The woman abused by the Evremonde brothers, as recounted in Doctor Manette's letter, repeats what phrase reffering to three people?

"my husband, my father, and my brother"

109)

Who was the dying young man Doctor Manette talked to in the Evremondes' stable loft?

The brother of the young woman

110)

In the story told by Doctor Manette, what presentiment did Charles Darnay's mother have when Charles was a little child?

That if they did not atone for their crimes against the abused family tree then, Charles Darnay would be made to atone in the future

111)

After Lucie collapses when Charles is condemned to death, who carries her to her carriage?

Sydney Carton

112)

When Sydney Carton kisses Lucie's daughter goodbye, he murmurs something, which the daughter will repeat to her grandchildren in future years. What is it that Carton murmurs?

"a life you love"

113)

Sydney Carton visits the Defarges' wine-shop, where he hears Madame Defarge comment on something remarkable about him. What does she remark on?

His resemblance to Evremonde (Charles Darnay)

114)

After Doctor Manette has frantically tried to save Charles from death, and failed to make headway, he returns upset and dejected, and complains that he ccan't find something. What is it that he is looking for and cannot find?

His shoe-making bench