Context Clues: Reading for Meaning

​Charles Dickens' novel

"A Tale of Two Cities"

Charles Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities” was published in 1859. It takes place in Paris, France and London, England around time of the French Revolution (1789-1799). It tells the story of two men, Frenchman Charles Darnay and Englishman Sydney Carton, and the effect of the revolution on their lives and the world.

The Mail

It was the Dover road that lay, on a Friday night late in November, before the first of the persons with whom this history has business. The Dover road lay, as to him, beyond the Dover mail, as it lumbered up Shooter’s Hill. He walked up hill in the mire by the side of the mail, as the rest of the passengers did; not because they had the least relish for walking exercise, under the circumstances, but because the hill, and the harness, and the mud, and the mail, were all so heavy, that the horses had three times already come to a stop, besides once drawing the coach across the road, with the mutinous intent of taking it back to Blackheath. Reins and whip and coachman and guard, however, in combination, had read that article of war which forbade a purpose otherwise strongly in favour of the argument, that some brute animals are endued with Reason; and the team had capitulated and returned to their duty.