Scott County Library audiobook 12 CDs
read by: Martin Jarvis
genre: historical fiction
Although I felt extremely familiar with this title ("It was the best of times; it was the worst of times" . . . Madame Defarge and her knitting . . . London and Paris . . . the French Revolution . . . Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay . . . ) I'd never actually read it or seen a movie version. So I got the audiobook to give myself a first true exposure to the full novel. Oh. My. Word. This got painful.
If you've never read this and want to be surprised, stop here! I will include spoilers.
For starters, I kept a cheat sheet of quick notes in the car just for the characters . . . and I still got confused! (One of the many reasons that reading the print version is better than listening.) I Googled the character names before writing this blog entry to make sure I had correct spellings.
Jarvis Lorry - banker with Tellson's
Miss Lucie Manette
Dr. Manette - in the Tower (Bastille) for 18 years (why?!?! - I found out later . . . ) - Lucie's dad
Jacques Defarge - wine seller
Madame Defarge - knitter, vicious woman
Mr. Jerry Cruncher - messenger for Tellson's / "respectable tradesman" who digs up graves / gets angry with his wife for "flopping" - praying, which he sees as the reason he's not more successful . . .
Young Jerry - his son
Charles Darnay - imprisoned and tried in London, imprisoned and "tried" in Paris
Striver - his lawyer / "the lion"
Sydney Carton - "the jackal" / works with Striver . . . not quite sure in what capacity / he's an interesting character
Monseigneur - He was awful! I kept vacillating between thinking he was also Charles Darnay's uncle, the Marquis de Evremonde, and thinking they were two separate people. Was he / they hung? Alive? What did I miss??? In any case, he was selfish, greedy, and nasty. (Wikipedia to the rescue:
The Marquis St. Evrémonde is referred to as "Monseigneur" and "Monsieur." These three different titles all refer to the same person: people who are below the Marquis in rank refer to him as "Monseigneur" or "Monsieur," while people of equal rank refer to him as the "Marquis.")
Miss Pross - good comic relief; calls Lucie "Ladybird"
Little Lucie
Spy / Miss Pross' brother / Mr. Barsat . . .
The Mender of Roads / the Sawyer
Jacques 3 - nasty
The Vengeance
Book the First - Recalled to Life (Starts with 1775; Ends with Dr. Manette out of France)
Book the Second - The Golden Thread
Book the Third - The Track of a Storm (Starts in Autumn 1792; Ends with everyone except Evremonde escaping)
Darnay is called "Evremonde" when he is imprisoned in France. The scene between Jarvis Lorry, Sydney Carton, Mr. Barsat, and Jerry Cruncher is one of my favorite parts of the book . . .
All of this makes me curious about the French Revolution. What happened after all the bloodshed? How many people were killed? I may need to do some research to learn more!
Madame Defarge is my least favorite character, but I wondered if she really was directly related to the young woman / husband / father / brother tended to by Dr. Manette so many years ago. How and why did she become a person "without pity" and so incredibly evil?
The Marquis - elder is Charles' dad, but died how? Then the younger (who defiled the woman) is Charles' uncle, but he is killed. This part was a bit vague for me. I wish I had a print version here to check the Marquis part.
I loved the scene between Madame Defarge and Miss Pross! Especially how it ended.
I actually cried at the last part. "It is a far, far better thing I do . . . " I recognized the quote. I've heard it many times. I didn't realize that it was said by Sydney Carton at the end of this novel! I wept like a baby.
Now that I've had my first read-through, I think I'd like to watch a video or read an abridgement . . . the French Revolution was bloody and dark.
(Below added 4.7.19)
So I got the Great Illustrated Classics version from the library. It helped put a few pieces of the puzzle into place for me.
It was Jerry Cruncher who brought the message to Jarvis Lorry in the opening scene.
It was Miss Pross who flew at Jarvis Lorry when Lucie got the news about her father.
The Marquis was stabbed in his bed by one of the Jacques . . . the man who was hanging from the chains was probably the killer . . . and he was killed the same night Charles Darnay spoke to him about renouncing his title . . . this part is still a bit fuzzy for me.
Madame Defarge really was the little sister whose family was destroyed by the Marquis. Still, she's extreme in her hatred and desire to exact revenge.
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