#charles darnay

[blebbloom]

getting executed in an hour and a friend has dropped in to visit me in prison! for some reason, he really wants us to swap outfits before i go to the guillotine, haha. just normal guy things, i guess ^^

#a tale of two cities #atotc #charles darnay #sydney carton

[artist-issues]

Finished A Tale of Two Cities

Go read it and then talk to me about it

#a tale of two cities #classics #I know I'm late #beautiful #Sydney carton #Charles darnay #the French Revolution #Charles dickens #good books #literature #book recommendations

[secretmellowblog]

You know how Nick/Gatsby and Holmes/Watson and Enjolras/Grantaire are super popular gay classic lit ships? I’m genuinely surprised there’s not a slash-shipping community around Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay from a Tale of Two Cities…like. I get the reason Darnay/Carton isn’t popular is because no one cares about A Tale of Two Cities but their relationship is so bizarrely homoerotic for literally no reason! It’s like Built to be some Dark Academia tumblr ship! I think Carton/Darnay should be in the tumblr gay classic lit canon, repping Dickens and the way Dickens’ misogynistic inability to write convincing heterosexual relationships results in his characters seeming extremely gay.

I could write an entire essay on why A Tale of Two Cities makes more sense if you ignore Dickens’ intent and read Carton as gay (with quotes supporting my point) but like. Carton insists he’s in love with Darnay’s wife Lucie but spends much more of his page-time talking to/flirting with Darnay (to the point where he’s never had an on page conversation with Lucie until he “confesses his love” to her in a scene where he also immediately rejects himself for her, and insists that their relationship would be Impossible for Reasons and that his heart isn’t Capable of feeling things the way it should, as if he’s chosen to convince himself he’s in love with her because she’s unattainable and he will never have to be in a relationship with her.) Darnay and Carton have all these tense charged snarky interactions that feel like fanfic. Darnay’s thing with Lucie is pretty bland but there’s this huge emphasis on the fact that he and Carton are “counterparts.” Whenever Dickens tries to write Carton as being sad that Lucie loves another man it generally comes across as Carton being jealous of Lucie, because he’s almost never had a full conversation with Lucie and spends most of his time instead having these very sad clingy desperate pathetic conversations with the men who love her. Carton has a weird homoerotic thing going on with his jock law partner Stryver, who he sacrifices everything for and spends all his time with and lets invade his personal space/walk all over him for reasons he refuses to explain (all while Stryver repeatedly mocks Carton for being incapable of falling in love with women). Carton ultimately sacrifices his life for Darnay by forcibly taking off Darnay’s clothes and disguising himself as him….like?

One of their first interactions is Carton heroically saving Darnay’s life, then drunkenly calling himself Darnay’s “counterpart” and asking him on a date.

Like.

Hm.

This feels like the banter you’d find in an Enjolras/Grantaire fanfic:

Fellas is it gay to

But yeah! The main thing people remember about A Tale of Two Cities are the cool peasant women revolutionaries, who Dickens is trying to portray as villains but who are actually the best characters in the book. And if I’m going to be mean to my high school self (who was obsessed with ATOTC for some reason) I’d say that the central melodrama between Carton/Darnay/Lucie is a weakness of the novel because Carton’s arc has nothing to do with the political French Revolution stuff, so his sacrifice feels thematically disconnected from all the book’s attempts at political commentary. HOWEVER. I think it works better if it’s gay.Also the Vengeance and Madame Defarge are gay, but people aren’t ready for that conversation!

So yee!! people on tumblr love ships that are like “hot goody-two-shoes classic lit boy in a suit x hot snarky classic lit sadboi in a suit”, but so few ppl remember Carton and Darnay, who were repping that all the way back in the 1790s 😔😔😔😔😔

#posts made for a max audience of 2 people #ALSO Sydney Carton is who people want Grantaire to be. he’s fanon Grantaire #but that’s another post #A Tale of two cities #Sydney carton #Charles Darnay #carton x Darnay #I was talking on discord about this the other day but. YEE #anyway carton was my first poor little meow meow #he did nothing wrong #if high school me was on tumblr I would’ve written so many posts about him being my poor blorbo #he’s just a very sad wet pathetic creature

[comma-after-dearest]

Does anyone think a lot about Charles Darnay’s inevitable post-novel PTSD/survivor guilt or is that just me?

#a tale of two cities #atotc #charles darnay #i have a lot of feelings about this please help

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

You know how "Evrémonde" isn’t, like, strictly a real French surname? Because it has haunted me for years — especially now that I have discovered two things:

1: What I can only assume was (as far as my research has shown me) the first French translation of A Tale of Two Cities in 1861 displayed the title of the novel on its first page as Le Marquis de Saint-Évremont: ou Paris et Londres en 1793.

This revelation was wild enough itself — was the translator effectively just "correcting" the spelling?? — until I came across the fact that:

2: There was a real, actual human man named Charles de Saint-Évremond. His full name was "Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond" and he lived from 1613 to 1703. Wikipedia describes him as "a French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic" who was apparently exiled from France around 1661 "as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the Peace of the Pyrenees" and lived in England for most of the rest of his life, dying in London and being buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Like HELLO? On top of everything else, that is where Charles Dickens is buried.

So: "Évremont" and "Évremond" — two different names, neither of which is "Evrémonde." What Does It All Mean.

If there is anyone out there reading this who speaks French (which I do not) and has some insight on the subtle differences between these names, I would genuinely love so much to know because this fascinates me to no end.

#A Tale of Two Cities #AToTC #Dickens #classic literature #Charles Darnay #<- tangentially but close enough (not tagging for the twins though) #research #miscellanous #seriously like What Is the Truth here like sculIy you are not gonna believe this #also all of my instincts are telling me that that translation of the first paragraph of the book is very bad #i mean considering what they chose for the title... #also seriously ‘Saint-Denis’ too?? at a certain point like come on #also hi again gonna be a veeerrrry miscellaneous december while i work on the Big Project to debut in 2024 (going well!!)

[gothlit-sexyman-contest]

#charles darnay #dorian gray #a tale of two cities #the picture of dorian gray #goth lit #gothlit sexyman contest #round 1

[typingwithmyhandstied]

I read it months ago, but I thought of it again. (SPOILERS FOR CLASSIC NOVEL A TALE OF TWO CITIES BECAUSE IT IS BETTER IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT ENDS)

In my English class while reading this book, multiple people insulted and put down Charles Darnay saying he wouldn't have taken Sydney Carton's place and that made him not as good of a person. I have a lot to say about Sydney Carton and my view of his sacrifice which I won't get into, but this is so false. First, who's to say Charles Darnay wouldn't do it? He was noble. If he thought it was the right thing, he might of, but it wouldn't be. I don't want to compare lives, but Sydney Carton had nothing. No true consequence came of his sacrifice. If Charles Darnay had sacrificed himself for Sydney Carton, more harm would have come. He has a child. He has a wife. You can't really shame a man for hypothetically in a situation completely unlikely not sacrificing himself when he was a child. Like what?

#a tale of two cities #charles dickens #sydney carton #charles darnay

[sage-green-kitchen]

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other"

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

#tea #tea ☕️ #🫖 #a tale of two cities #sydney carton #charles darnay #lucie manette #charles dickens #i love this book #favorite books #light academia #chaotic academia #aesthetic #picture #aesthetic photography

[gabriel-shutterson]

I’m onto something I promise

Portrayal of Charles is not completely book accurate but hush

#nonlaconic rambles #gothic lit #frankenstein #the picture of dorian gray #a tale of two cities #victor frankenstein #dorian gray #charles darnay #Rich And Pretty Squad™️ #don’t ask questions.

[klqdraws]

Charles ref to go with the Sydney :]

#klq totc #charles darnay

[mylyy]

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

#charles dickens #Dickens #a tale of two cities #art #book quotes #booklover #heartbreak #love #the best of times #the worst of times #sydney carton #charles darnay #lucie manette

[icantrecallaskysoclear]

“...I thank you, Darnay. I may use that freedom with your name?" "I think so, Carton, by this time."

. . .

#ATOTC #a tale of two cities the musical #ATOTC on PBS #a tale of two cities #book quote #charles darnay #sydney carton #Sydney & Charles #atotcedit #gifs made by me #the queque is upon us #bros #theatre bros #theatreedit #jill santoriello #james barbour #simon thomas #I really like how sydney and charles' relationship grows #they start out as rivals but by the end of the show they genuinely care for and value one another #heck Charles even asks Carton to take care of Lucie because he trusts him to make her happy #I wanted to make a longer gifset showcasing Sydney and Charles' friendship but the PBS concert doesn't have many scenes with them :-(

[artist-issues]

I haven't finished the book yet but the brutal irony is that Defarge's commitment to "justice" for Dr. Manet's wrongful imprisonment actually leads to keeping Dr. Manet in that prison, mentally. The age-old wrong was righted when Dr. Manet overcame his bitterness with the noble family that stole 18 years of his life so his daughter could marry their descendant and be happy. He righted the wrong with love and forgiveness. Then the French Revolution, in the name of "righting wrongs," came along and would've undone all the freedom Dr. Manet was experiencing by insisting on lopping his son-in-law's head off. They cry "Justice for the prisoner of the Bastille!" But the second they decide to carry that "Justice" out, poor Dr. Manet is so devastated, where does he go? Back to his mental prison to "make shoes."

"Justice" done in the name of "revenge for oppression" was not true justice 232 years ago, nor was it justice 172 years ago, nor is it justice today.

That's the truth we're reminded of, ladies and gentlemen

#spoilers #but like #it was published 172 years ago so come on catch up #a tale of two cities #Sydney carton #all y'all who were forced to read this in school probably already made this observation #but whatever I'm late #Charles dickens #Charles darnay #Dr Manet #Lucie Manet #Doctor Manet #classic literature #literature #literati #literacy #analysis #storytelling #racism #yeah I said it #classism #oppression #social commentary

[calculatedliterature]

Thursday, November 3rd

A little commentary on A Tale of Two Cities...

The way Charles Darnay treats Lucie Manette and her father >>>>

I just love the varied depictions of the men in love with Lucie and how they talk about her. I mean, we get Stryver's arrogance and materialism, when he says

"I don't care about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have made up my mind to please myself: on the whole, I think I can afford to please myself. She will have in me a man already pretty well off, and a rapidly rising man, and a man of some distinction: it is a piece of good fortune for her, but she is worthy of good fortune."

And then Charles Darnay, who first says,

"I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disinterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were love in the world, I love her."

and then even in loving her he cares more about her love of and relationship with her father than he does about himself because he says

"I know, how can I fail to know, Doctor Manette, I who have seen you together from day to day, that between you and Miss Manette there is an affection so unusual, so touching, so belonging to the circumstances in which it has been nurtured, that it can have few parallels, even in the tenderness between a father and child. I know, Doctor Manette-- how can I fail to know-- that mingled with the affection and duty of a daughter who has become a woman, there is, in her heart towards you, all the love and reliance of infancy itself. [...] I know that in loving you she sees and loves her mother at her own age, sees and loves you at my age, loves her mother broken-hearted, loves you through your dreadful trial and in your blessed restoration. I have known this, night and day, since I have known you in your home."

#studyblr #student #annotation #booklover #college #annotating books #classic literature #study blog #dark academia #studyspo #charles dickens #a tale of two cities #literary analysis #charles darnay #sydney carton

[comma-after-dearest]

Broke: Darnay and Carton speak English to each other

Woke: Darnay and Carton speak to each other in their own languages (aka they have bilingual conversations)

Bespoke: Darnay and Carton speak to each other in their own brand of Franglish that only they can understand

#a tale of two cities #atotc #sydney carton #charles darnay

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

jigsaw puzzle time!

and check out the description on the side😭:

"One of the world's great novels by the master storyteller Charles Dickens. "A gripping tale of love and death set in London and Paris that brings to life the terror and excitement of the French Revolution. "It tells how a good for nothing English lawyer, the double of a happy newly married French nobleman sentenced to the guillotine, takes his place at the scaffold."

In one sentence this jigsaw puzzle box finds a way to insult both Carton ("good for nothing") AND Darnay ("nobleman")

...

also here's an unrelated puzzle because I don't wanna post it as its own thing

#Sydney Carton #Charles Darnay #A Tale of Two Cities #AToTC #Dickens #classic literature #memorabilia #vintage #god someday i'm gonna make a compilation post talking about how soooooo many descriptions of the book out there #insist on immediately and sometimes exclusively referring to Darnay as 'a French aristocrat/nobleman' LIKE..... #a man doesn't flee his home country in very bad standing with his family and leave his inherited wealth behind #and become a professor of his native language for people to still call him the thing he's actively avoiding/dreading being called😣 #like hello??? #also guess what: this is a queued post!! i'm gonna queue for the whole month except for halloween #because halloween is apparently on a tuesday this year so I gotta figure out something special to cook up for it🤔