Online Exhibition: Character Sketches from the World of Charles Dickens
This exhibition celebrates one of the most enduring legacies of Charles Dickens's genius: the unforgettable characters he brought to life.
Dr. Manette had been unjustly imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years. Lucie Manette had been told he was dead but here they are reunited. In the 1935 film, Lucie Manette was played by Henry B. Walthall and Elizabeth Allan played Lucie.
Theatre Collection
The daughter of Dr. Manette, Lucie is loved by Sydney Carton but marries Charles Darnay. “His eyes rested on a short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, and a pair of blue eyes that met his own with an inquiring look.”
Rutter Collection — Print and Picture Collection
Charles Darnay is the English alias for French aristocrat Charles St. Evrémonde, who marries Lucie Manette. “. . . (T)he paleness which his situation engendered came through the brown upon his cheek, showing the soul to be stronger than the sun.”
Kyd. Illustrations of Character s in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities.
Carton is a dissolute barrister who falls in love with Lucie Manette, but gives up his life to save her husband, Charles Darnay, from the guillotine.
F. G. Lewin. Characters from Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, 1912.
Sydney Carton worked for Darnay’s lawyer Stryver. “What the two drank together between Hilary Term and Michaelmas might have floated a king’s ship . . . and Carton was rumoured to be seen in broad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings, like a dissipated cat.”
Rutter Collection — Print and Picture Collection
Barsad is the alias for Solomon Pross, a French spy. “Of what profession? Gentleman. Ever been kicked? Might have been. Frequently? No. Ever kicked downstairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick on the top of a staircase, and fell downstairs of his own accord.”
Kyd. Illustrations of Character s in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities.
The 1935 film version of A Tale of Two Cities starred Ronald Coleman as Sydney Carton. Here he awaits his fate. “It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done, it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”
Theatre Collection
The 1935 MGM film was directed by Jack Conway.
Theatre Collection