Chapters 3 and 4: Buried Alive?

Chapter 3: England
After he leaves the coach on the Dover Road, Jerry Cruncher  ruminates on the message: "Recalled to Life." We get a description of him as a rough, classic Dickensian Londoner, complete with spiky black hair and close-set eyes.

Then we move back into the Dover mail coach, where Mr. Jarvis Lorry is in a half-waking, half-nightmare state. An image of a "spectre" haunts him, a man of "sunken cheek" and "cadaverous colour," (p. 14) and Lorry recalls a conversation with this man: "Buried how long?" "Almost eighteen years."

The sun rises on a new day as Lorry's coach enters Dover.

Chapter 4: Still in England
In the Royal George Hotel, Dover, we get our first look at Mr. Lorry. He is a trim, neat man of about 60, who wears an old-fashioned wig and a well-kept brown suit. Everything about him is "orderly and methodical." (17)

Lucie Manette enters. She is 17 and alone in the world. She has come to Dover at the request of Tellson's Bank, where she meets with Mr. Lorry. He reveals that he brought her from France to England when she was three years old. Then he reveals that her father is actually alive, and has just been released from 18 years in prison. She is rather verklempt, and Mr. Lorry tries to console her with the encouraging words, "A matter of business! ...useful business!" The two will travel to France together to meet Dr. Manette.

Who's Who in A Tale of Two Cities

In Book the First of A Tale of Two Cities, we've met a handful of characters. Here they are, to review, in order of appearance in the book:

In England:

Mr. Lorry and Lucie meet, Book 1.

Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a banker with Tellson's bank. He is connected by business and affection to the Manette family.

Jerry Cruncher and his son.

 Lucie Manette, seventeen-year-old daughter of Dr. Manette, born in France but raised in England.


Jerry Cruncher, odd-job servant and messenger for Tellson's bank. He has a side business that makes him rather a grave man. 

Edna May Oliver as Miss Pross

Miss Pross, nanny, ladies' maid,  and fierce protector of Lucie Manette.








In France:

Monsieur and Madame DeFarge: Wine-shop owners, St. Antoine, Paris. Monsieur DeFarge, a "martial-looking" man, once worked for Dr. Manette. Madame DeFarge is a skilled knitter, "with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything."

Dr. Alexandre Manette, father to Lucie. Jailed in the Bastille for eighteen years, he is, as the novel opens, freed and "recalled to life."

An Uphill Slog through Mud and Fog: ATOTC, Chapter 2

Mr. Jarvis Lorry reads the letter delivered by Jerry Cruncher.

The novel opens with the philosophical, long-sighted Chapter 1, but the action begins in Chapter 2.  The scene may be difficult to decipher, but this is likely intentional on Dickens' part, as it sets the mood for the action to come. Here's what we know:

The coach carrying the mail to Dover is also carrying three passengers, among them Mr. Jarvis Lorry. The passengers reflect the general air of suspicion and fear that has gripped England, "for anybody on the road might be a robber or in league with robbers." (p. 7)

The coach is stuck in the mud, on an uphill incline. The passengers are forced to walk through the mud, while the coachmen abuse the horses. It's not too difficult to find the metaphor here for a country that is going nowhere and whose powers-that-be (the crown, the government and the clergy) heap abuses on those who toil to move it forward. Meanwhile a fog "roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none." (p. 6)

No surprise, then, that when Jerry Cruncher, an "honest tradesman" arrives with a message for Mr. Lorry, he is met with suspicion by the heavily armed coachman and guard. His message: "Wait at Dover for Mam'selle" (p. 10) is given the reply by Jarvis Lorry: "RECALLED TO LIFE." Since this is the title of Book One of ATOTC, we can assume this has some significance. It does.