A Tale of Two Cities Trivia
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110 free A Tale of Two Cities trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This A Tale of Two Cities trivia quiz covers Charles Dickens's 1859 novel of London and Paris in the shadow of the French Revolution. The easy questions are the ones every reader remembers: the two cities, the famous opening words, the man who has been recalled to life, the woman who knits beside the guillotine and the barrister who does a far, far better thing. From there it moves through the plot book by book: Tellson's Bank, the trial at the Old Bailey, the Marquis and the coin, the storming of the Bastille, La Force prison, the letter that lures Darnay back, the manuscript in the cell and Miss Pross's fight with Madame Defarge. The harder end is for Dickensians: the periodical it was serialised in, the play by Wilkie Collins that inspired the love triangle, the rival play that prompted talk of plagiarism, Thomas Carlyle's history, the dedication to Lord John Russell, the meaning of Jerry Cruncher's night work, Gabelle's name, the house on Greek Street, the Borges quip, and the many films, radio plays, musicals and even a Batman film that borrowed from it. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the novel, its characters and its adaptations before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Charles Dickens, French Revolution and classic literature quizzes next.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How is the cruel Marquis St. Evrémonde related to Charles Darnay?
His uncle
His uncle: the Marquis is the twin brother of Darnay's late father, and over supper at the château the nephew renounces the family's property and France itself, hours before the Marquis is found dead.
Q 02Which novel did Dickens publish next after A Tale of Two Cities?
Great Expectations
Great Expectations began in December 1860 in his own weekly: a serial by Charles Lever was losing readers, so Dickens stepped in with his own story to revive sales.
Q 03How does the famous first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities begin?
It was the best of times
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' opens one long sentence of paired opposites that ends by saying the period was, in short, much like the present.
Q 04After eighteen years in the Bastille, what does Dr Manette give as his name?
One Hundred and Five, North Tower
One Hundred and Five, North Tower was his cell: asked his name, the white-haired prisoner can give nothing else, and it is to that cell that Defarge has himself led when the Bastille falls.
Q 05What cryptic message does Jarvis Lorry send back with Jerry Cruncher at the start of A Tale of Two Cities?
Recalled to Life
Recalled to Life is all the credential Lorry carries: he tells Lucie the errand to fetch her father is so secret that he has no paper referring to it, only that one line, 'which may mean anything'.
Q 06Jarvis Lorry and the messenger Jerry Cruncher work for which London bank?
Tellson's
Tellson's, beside Temple Bar, is small, dark and ugly, and its partners are proud of it: any one of them would have disinherited a son who proposed rebuilding the place.
Q 07What craft does Dr Manette practise obsessively in his garret after his release?
Shoemaking
Shoemaking kept Dr Manette sane in his cell; after a nine-day relapse in London, Lorry hacks the bench to pieces while Miss Pross holds the candle, and they burn the wood and bury the tools.
Q 08What business do Ernest and Thérèse Defarge run in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine?
A wine shop
A wine shop: when a cask shatters outside it, the starving street scoops the spill from the gutter, and one man dips a finger in the dregs to write BLOOD on a wall.
Q 09On what charge is Charles Darnay tried in London in 1780?
Treason against the Crown
Treason against the Crown meant being hanged, drawn and quartered, which is why the courtroom is packed: Darnay is accused of passing lists of British forces to the French king.
Q 10How does Darnay's lawyer discredit the witness who places him in a dockyard town?
He points out Carton's likeness
He points out Carton's likeness: a note from Carton prompts Stryver to ask the unnamed witness whether he could mistake the prisoner for the barrister sitting nearby, and the certainty collapses.
Q 11What does the Marquis St. Evrémonde do after his carriage kills a child in Paris?
He tosses out a gold coin
He tosses out a gold coin, scolds the crowd for not minding their children and his horses, and when a coin is flung back into the carriage says he would gladly crush whoever threw it under the wheels.
Q 12Whose family name, D'Aulnais, does Charles Darnay adapt into his English surname?
His mother
His mother: she had begged her son to atone for the family's wrongs, so he drops the Evrémonde name and title, crosses to England and earns his own living there.
Q 13Who kills the Marquis St. Evrémonde in his bed?
Gaspard
Q 21What does Darnay reveal to Dr Manette on the morning of his wedding to Lucie?
His real name and lineage
His real name and lineage, told as he had promised, leave Dr Manette deadly pale; once the couple drive off he slips back into his old prison habit for nine days, a relapse kept from Lucie.
Q 22In which month and year do the Defarges help lead the storming of the Bastille in A Tale of Two Cities?
July 1789
July 1789: as the Bastille falls, Defarge seizes a turnkey and makes him lead the way to Dr Manette's old cell, which he searches inch by inch before burning its contents.
Q 23Whose pleading letter lures Darnay back to Paris in 1792?
Gabelle the tax collector
Gaspard, whose child died under the Marquis's carriage wheels, stabs him in his château; caught months later, he is hanged on a gallows forty feet high above the village fountain, poisoning its water.
Q 14What note is left with the knife that kills the Marquis St. Evrémonde?
Drive him fast to his tomb
'Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques' is scrawled on a paper frill round the knife's hilt, turning the reckless speed of the Marquis's carriage, which had killed a child, back on him.
Q 15What pet name does the governess Miss Pross use for Lucie?
Ladybird
Ladybird is so jealously guarded by Miss Pross that she complains 'hundreds of people' come courting her pet, though only two callers turn up that evening.
Q 16What is Jerry Cruncher's secret night-time occupation?
Resurrection Man, or body-snatcher
Resurrection Man, or body-snatcher: Jerry calls his night work 'going fishing', digging up fresh graves for sale to doctors, which is why his fingers are always rusty and his boots muddy.
Q 17What does Jerry Cruncher accuse his wife of doing to ruin his luck?
Praying
Praying: Jerry calls it 'flopping' and is sure her prayers work against his trade, so when he wakes to find her on her knees he throws a muddy boot at her.
Q 18What is the title of Book the Second of A Tale of Two Cities?
The Golden Thread
The Golden Thread is Lucie: the narrator calls her the golden thread uniting her father to a past before his misery and a present beyond it, since only she can charm away his dark moods.
Q 19What nickname does Dickens give Sydney Carton because of his deference to the barrister Stryver?
The Jackal
The Jackal does the real legal work: night after night Carton, wet towels wrapped round his head, boils down the briefs that Stryver, the 'lion', will argue in court next day.
Q 20Whom does the ambitious barrister Stryver end up marrying after talking himself out of proposing to Lucie?
A rich widow
A rich widow with three sons becomes Mrs Stryver; he then tells her that Lucie had once tried to 'catch' him and that only his own cleverness kept him from being caught.
Gabelle the tax collector writes from the Abbaye prison, jailed for having served the Evrémonde estate; Darnay feels bound in honour to answer, and slips away to France without telling his family.
Q 24In which Paris prison is Darnay first held, for fifteen months, after returning to France?
La Force
La Force holds Darnay 'in secret' for fifteen months; Dr Manette, honoured by the mob as a former Bastille prisoner, uses that standing to keep his son-in-law alive through the prison massacres.
Q 25Who turns out to be Miss Pross's long-lost brother Solomon?
John Barsad
John Barsad is unmasked when Miss Pross, out shopping in Paris, screams at the sight of her brother; Carton, who knew him as a London trial witness, uses the discovery to force his help.
Q 26How does the Bastille manuscript read out at Darnay's retrial conclude?
Denouncing the Evrémondes and all their descendants
Denouncing the Evrémondes and all their descendants 'to the last of their race' was Dr Manette's own curse, scratched in soot and blood in his cell; read out in court, it condemns his son-in-law.
Q 27What is the source of Madame Defarge's hatred of the Evrémondes?
They raped her sister and killed her brother
They raped her sister and killed her brother: the Evrémonde twins called in Dr Manette to treat their victims, then jailed him to keep him quiet, while the youngest girl was hidden away and grew up to be Madame Defarge.
Q 28What does Madame Defarge secretly encode in her knitting?
The names of people to be killed
The names of people to be killed go into her knitted register in her own stitches and symbols; when a government spy calls at the shop, she knits in his name while chatting to him.
Q 29How does Madame Defarge die?
Her own pistol fires as she fights Miss Pross
Her own pistol fires as she fights Miss Pross, who has barred the door to hide the family's escape; the shot kills Madame Defarge and leaves Miss Pross deaf for the rest of her life.
Q 30What is the name of Madame Defarge's lieutenant and shadow?
The Vengeance
The Vengeance, a grocer's plump wife, saves her friend a chair by the guillotine and cries her name in vain as the tumbrils unload, unaware that Madame Defarge already lies dead.