A Tale of Two Cities - Part 8

Chapter 1

• Charles goes to France and is immediately arrested because he is an aristocratic emigrant . . .not a surprise. The fact that Defarge is in charge and knows Dr. Manette and Charles' relationship to him might help, but for now it looks pretty bleak.
• Charles realizes that he shouldn't have come to France . . .DUH. He is now in solitary confinement (or "in secret" as they call it) and it sounds like he is going a little crazy, not unlike his dear father-in-law, Dr. Manette.
• This is the first chapter that I've read that I actually talked about what was going on in this book to my husband. I wasn't that into it before I guess, but now Charles is just being stupid and I had to talk about it to somebody!

Chapter 2

• Patriots in Paris begin murdering the prisoners. Dr. M. and Lucie (and little Lucie and Miss Pross) come to Paris searching for Charles. Dr. M. is a hero since he was unjustly imprisoned in the Bastille all those years ago, so he has some leverage and goes to see if he can help Charles. 

Chapter 3

• The Defarges visit Mr. Lorry and Lucie . . .this was a very dark scene, very foreboding. It is becoming apparent that Madame Defarge does not have any sympathy for Lucie's situation. Dr. M. visits Charles who is okay, but still imprisoned.

Chapter 4

• The times are bad in France, many people are dying (especially by their new favorite tool, the guillotine). About one year has passed, and Dr. Manette is safe, but Charles is still in prison. 

Chapter 5

• Lucie sees the citizens of Paris dance the Carmagnole. It is described as a sort of scary death dance in the book. You can see a video of it here: Carmagnole Dance (you have to skip ahead to 1:25 to see them start dancing, but it doesn't look scary to me). Personally, I doubt the had the May Pole thing while dancing through the streets of Paris, so I'm sure what Dickens was describing was a bit different, but that was the only video I could find . . .sorry. 
• Charles will have his trial tomorrow.

Things are getting much more serious in this book now. I have hope that Dr. M. will be able to get Charles freed, but then what . . .there is a lot more book to go, what could be in store for our fool-hardy hero and his beloved family?