A lookalike lawyer trades his life for love on the guillotine's shadow.
Who drives the story
A brilliant, self-loathing lawyer who 'cares for no man on earth' and loves Lucie hopelessly. In the end he drugs his lookalike Darnay in a prison cell, takes his place, and goes to the guillotine so the family he loves can live.
A French physician buried alive in the Bastille for eighteen years, rescued into his daughter's care. His hidden manuscript from cell 105 becomes the very document that condemns his daughter's husband to death.
The golden-haired daughter who 'recalls' her father to life and holds her whole family together, the thread the second book is named for. Her devotion inspires Carton's sacrifice, and she escapes to England because of it.
A French aristocrat who renounces his cruel family's name and property to live as an English tutor. His sense of duty drags him back to revolutionary Paris, where his uncle's crimes, not his own, send him to the guillotine.
The wine-shop's cold-eyed knitter, registering the names of the condemned, born of a peasant family destroyed by the Evrémondes. Her vengeance outlives its targets; she dies by her own pistol at Lucie's doorstep.
Tellson's Bank's methodical, white-haired manager, trustee and guardian of the Manette family. He carries the 'Recalled to Life' message, runs the Paris branch through the Terror, and drives the fleeing family toward England.
Tellson's porter and secret 'Resurrection Man' who digs up corpses for surgeons, abusive to his praying wife. His night trade lets him recognize a buried coffin plot, and he serves the Manettes loyally in Paris.
Lucie's fierce, devoted governess, long robbed and abandoned by her brother Solomon. She blocks Madame Defarge at the door and survives the struggle deaf, at the cost of everything she had left.
A spy who testifies against Darnay in 1780 and resurfaces as a prison official under the Revolution. Blackmailed by Carton, he carries the drugged Darnay out of La Force to freedom.
Also in the story
Dr. Manette's former servant, now a revolutionary leader of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. He believes in the cause but is more moderate than his wife, and it is he who finds the doctor's manuscript in the cell.
How they are connected
A brilliant, self-loathing lawyer who 'cares for no man on earth' and loves Lucie hopelessly.
In the end he drugs his lookalike Darnay in a prison cell, takes his place, and goes to the guillotine so the family he loves can live.
Her vengeance outlives its targets; she dies by her own pistol at Lucie's doorstep.
Lucie's fierce, devoted governess, long robbed and abandoned by her brother Solomon.
She blocks Madame Defarge at the door and survives the struggle deaf, at the cost of everything she had left.
John Barsad (Solomon Pross)Charles Darnay
A spy who testifies against Darnay in 1780 and resurfaces as a prison official under the Revolution.
John Barsad (Solomon Pross)Sydney Carton
Blackmailed by Carton, he carries the drugged Darnay out of La Force to freedom.
Go deeper
Resurrection and being 'recalled to life' · The revolution devours its children · Sacrifice for love · History as fate: buried things return
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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