A Tale of Two Cities?
For my honors english summer reading assignment, we had to read A Tale of Two Cities, and then do some work about it. It was split into 3 sections, chapters 1-10,11-20, and 21-30, even though there is more than 30 chapters. The assignment is the same for each grouping. Part of that is we have to write a summary for all 10 ch. at the same time. It also has to be one page. I did chapters 11-20, but it it more than one page. Will somebody help me condense it up? I am terrible at writing summaries, and I don't like to do it, but I have to. i need somebody to tell me what to take out. By the way, I used the cliff notes for help with this. It is about a page and a fourth. Although, Darnay has left, Mr. Carton stays, and he falls asleep at the tavern. A waiter awakens him, and Carton then walks to Mr. Stryver’s chambers. While there, the two work on some cases. After that, they talk about their school days, and how different their luck has been. The discussion then turns to Lucie, who they both admire. As it is reaching day break, Carton heads home, imagining how different his life could’ve been. When he gets home, he goes to sleep. Four months passed since the trial, and Mr. Darnay, Mr. Lorry, and Sidney Carton are regular visitors in the Mannette home, where Lucie’s nurse, Miss Pross also lives. One Sunday, Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry discuss Doctor Mannette’s progress. Darnay tells a story of a prisoner in the Tower of London, and Doctor goes crazy. While they are drinking tea, they hear echoes of footsteps in the street and Lucie shares that sometimes she thinks the footsteps are “the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by-and-by into our lives.†Carton then says the footsteps will be “a great crowd coming on day into our lives†After being treated badly at a reception hosted by a French Lord, Marquis St. Evremonde leaves angrily, and his driver runs over a child in the street and kills him. Marquis shows no remorse for the death of the child and after a slight encounter, he drives away. The Marquis is traveling from Paris to the Evremonde country estate and when they stop in a village near his home, he questions a road-mender, asking him if he saw a man riding under the carriage, but he said no. He alerts the village to be on the lookout for the man. Before he gets to his home though, a woman begs him for the marker of a grave for her husband at a cemetery. They ignore her, and they keep going on, until they reach the estate, where Monsieur Charles has arrived from England yet. When the Marquis gets inside, he prepares for supper and he waits for his nephew’s arrival. When Charles Darnay, his nephew arrives, the get acquainted and Darnay announces that he is disclaiming all connections to his family and to France. They both equally despise each other. Before he leaves, the Marquis asks about Darnay’s relationship with Lucie and Doctor Mannette and kind of smirks. The next morning, the Marquis is found dead. He had been stabbed by a member of the Jacquerie. A year after the Marquis has been assassinated, Darnay is a tutor of the French language and literature in England. He has fallen in love with Lucie, and decides to tell Doctor Mannette his feelings and wants to marry Lucie. He is unsure if Lucie feels the same way, so he asks the Doctor not to say anything, unless she feels the same way. Darnay tells the Doctor to tell her that he has expressed love for her and not say anything against him. The Doctor agrees. Although, Doctor tells him to spill the information until the morning of the wedding. In the evening, Lucie approaches her father, while he is at his work bench and when she calls to him, he mentions nothing of Darnay’s visit. The same night that Darnay tells his feelings to Doctor Mannette, Stryver tells Carton that he wishes to marry Lucie. After describing how eligible and attractive he thinks he is to women, he accuses Carton of making him so unattractive. He thinks Carton should find a wife to take care of him. On his way to Soho, Stryver drops by Tellson’s bank to tell Mr. Lorry of his plans. Mr. Lorry advises that he go over there first to find out if Lucie would accept Stryver’s proposal. He agrees, and when Mr. Lorry returns, he says he should drop the suit. Stryver had already changed his mind though and acts like it was a misunderstanding by Lucie. One afternoon, Carton reveals his feelings to Lucie. Lucie does not feel the same way, but Carton just wanted her to know how much he loved her. Jerry Cruncher is sitting outside Tellson’s bank, as he notices a funeral procession going by. The funeral is of Roger Cly, one of the spies who testified against Darnay. Cruncher decides to join in the procession. It keeps getting larger and larger. When the coffing is buried, a fight breaks out in the mob and Jerry Cruncher returns to the bank. Later that night, after he puts his family to bed, he leaves his house with a sack, a crowbar, a rope and a chain. His son follows him because he is curious. Two men join him on the way to the grave yard. They are digging up a grave, and terrified, young Jerry runs home. He awakes the next morning to his father beating his mother. Young Jerry walks to the bank with Cruncher and he asks what a “resurrection man†is, and when he finds out the answer, he says he wants to be one when he grows up.
Homework Help - 3 Answers
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1 :
Actually your summaries are well-written. You are a good summary writer--unless you are over-relying on the Spark notes. In condensing, just eliminate the unimportant details. Use only what is significant to the story. For instance: Darney leaves Carton, who they goes to see Mr. Stryker. After discussing legal affairs, the two then talk about Lucie, WHOM they both admire. In the morning when he is heading home, Carton thinks how his whole life might have been very different. I don't think it's significant that he goes to sleep; therefore I've left it out. The trick in summarizing is in getting to the important stuff and omitting the rest.
2 :
First, you have way too many commas in there, and you can condense and combine several of your sentences. There are some bits of unnecessary information that can be taken out without affecting the flow of your thoughts. These things alone will make it smoother to read and may eliminate the space that you need. Second, I would really recommend watching your verb tenses - they go back and forth a lot. I know it's a lit assignment, but your teacher will naturally look for grammar as well (being an Honors English class). I can tell you from experience that if something is a couple of lines over, but well written, the teacher will often give a little grace. However, even if it's within the limit but has errors that will stand out to someone like an English teacher, they'll tend to be more critical. For example, I've rewritten your first paragraph just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about: Although, Darnay has left, Mr. Carton stays, and he falls asleep at the tavern. A waiter awakens him, and Carton then walks to Mr. Stryver’s chambers. While there, the two work on some cases. After that, they talk about their school days, and how different their luck has been. The discussion then turns to Lucie, who they both admire. As it is reaching day break, Carton heads home, imagining how different his life could’ve been. When he gets home, he goes to sleep. Although Darnay left, Mr. Carton stayed and fell asleep at the tavern. A waiter awakened him and he proceeded to Mr. Stryver's chambers where they spoke about their school days and how different their luck had been; the discussion turned to Lucie, the object of their admiration. As day break approached Carton started home imagining how different his life could have been. These thoughts stayed with him until he fell asleep. Just in that paragraph, I brought it from 7 sentences to 5 and 83 words to 71. That might not seem like much, but between 7 paragraphs it could bring down to the one-page limit. Hope that helps! Edit...ok, so I'm bored today :) I took a few minutes and rewrote your piece, if you pare it down and condense your sentences it will fit easily on one page (with even a few lines to spare). It went from 848 to 601 words, 50 sentences to 30, and went up an entire grade level in writing strength. Just go back through and 1) weed out the unimportant details and 2) correct the grammar. If you do those two things, you'll have a great summary that easily fits within the space limitation.
3 :
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. (1812-1870) Study Guides Feature: Chapter-By-Chapter Summary and Commentary, Plot Summary, Character Descriptions, Literary Analysis – Themes and more…. http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ttc/ http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/twocities/ http://www.awerty.addr.com/taletwo2.html http://dickensfordummies.homestead.com/TwoCities.html http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/taletwo.asp http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/taleoftwocities/ http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmTale2Cities01.asp Academic Resources: http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-TTC.html http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/5/79.05.02.x.html The Dickens Page: http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Dickens.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++
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