Είναι η πρώτη φορά που διαβάζω Ντίκενς. Η γραφή, η λυρικότητα της και αυτή η λεπτή του ειρωνεία, μου άρεσε πολύ. Οι περιγραφές των φρικαλέων γεγονότων που έλαβαν χώρα κατα τη διάρκεια της Γαλλικής Επανάστασης ώρες ώρες ανατριχιαστικές και η ατμόσφαιρα υποβλητική. Τις τελευταίες 200 σελίδες δε, ξενύχτησα διαβάζοντας τες. Καιρό είχα να το κάνω αυτό! Το τέλος με συγκίνησε και με άφησε με πολλά συναισθήματα.
Πολύ δυνατό και αληθινό βιβλίο και δεν το περίμενα!
Στο μέλλον σίγουρα θα διαβάσω κι άλλα δικά του!

An outstanding historical novel! set in the time of french revolution. This is my second read, written by the literary genius Charles Dickens after christmas carol. The language is very poetic and literary with a

Dry and boring all.... the.... way .... through

I first read A Tale of Two Cities as a high school sophomore. I have a vivid memory of my English book laid flat on my desk, though it seems odd to me now that the whole novel was in a textbook. Though it wasn’t my introduction to Dickens (that came from a book of stories I didn’t realize till later were not the ‘real’ stories, but that’s a different story), I remember being stunned by the language, the characters, and the atmosphere. Especially due to the characters of Sydney Carton (what teenage girl doesn’t have a soft spot for unrequited love) and Madame Defarge (Vengeance, thy name is Woman!), the novel was an inspired choice for an Honors English group of girls, some of whom would stand up at lunchtime to reenact scenes. (I especially remember their going on to denounce each other as having “walked with the devil” a la The Crucible the following school year.)

While this reread (with the Dickens Fellowship of New Orleans -- not a teenager in the group) perhaps brought to light for me some of the non-perfection of this work, the opening paragraph (not just its famous first phrase); the unbearable heart-pounding pacing of the carriage rides; and the entire last chapter (not just the famous last sentence) retained every bit of their power. I’d forgotten the ultimate fate of one character and, when it arrived, it startled me with the force of a solitary thunderclap, so unexpected I had to read it again to make sure it had happened.

One word: Sydney.

تحفة رائعة ...
لولا أن الكتاب مكانه الرفوف لكانت يجب أن توضع في إحدى الساحات العامة كمثال للإبداع

جمال الوصف للأحوال والشخصيات وانسيابية التنقل بين المتناقضات لندن وباريس & جوع وفقر & ثورة وارستقراطية

شجون وذكريات اثارتها الرواية ... آآآه ... لكم اشتقت للمدرسة ولمعلمتي التي كانت تحكيها لنا فكانت متعة قراءتها مضاعفة لدي .. تطن اذني عند مرور جملة قد سمعتها قبل اكثر من عشرين سنة من فم معلمتي الجميلة وهي تشرح القصة من منهج اللغة الانكليزية

تحفة تشجعني على أقرأ لتشارلز ديكنز مزيدا من روائعه

My primary goal when I'm teaching A Tale of Two Cities to my sophomores is to make them realize that Charles Dickens didn't write creaky, dusty long novels that teachers embraced as a twisted rite of passage for teenagers. Instead, I want them them to understand why Dickens was one of the most popular writers in England and America during his time. I want them to see the book as the suspenseful, comedic, and sentimental piece of entertainment that it is. Because, while A Tale of Two Cities is masterfully written with sly humor, densely meaningful descriptions, a cast of quirky characters only Dickens could create, an endless series of telling binaries and foils, and relevant social commentary about the French Revolution as well as Dickens' time, it is also simply a damn good story. By a damn good storyteller.

I have a difficult time writing reviews about books that I adore because, when I'm not reading them, I hug them too closely to be very critical. (BTW - I frequently hug A Tale of Two Cities in front of my students... and write Charles Dickens' name with hearts around it... They think I'm crazy, but it intrigues some of them just enough to make them doubt the derisive comments of upperclassmen.) I reluctantly admit that Dickens does oversimplify the causes of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror; however, in doing so, he successfully captures the spirit of a tumultuous period and helps readers sympathize with characters on every side of the developing conflict. I also think that the characters of Roger Cly and John Barsad get a bit messy and may have worked better as a single character. Perhaps the confusion is a result of serialization restructuring. But, really, I read A Tale of Two Cities like a costumed Lord of the Rings fan at a movie premier. I cheer when my favorite characters enter scenes and I knowingly laugh when Dickens cleverly foreshadows future events.

Though I don't think that A Tale of Two Cities is Dickens' best novel--that title I would reserve for either Bleak House or David Copperfield--I do agree with Dickens, who claims that it was his best story. It is artfully written. Dickens introduces a cast of characters, sprawled across two nations and spanning varied social classes and political affiliations, and then effortlessly weaves their stories and secrets together in a masterful way. The Modernist movement painstakingly forced literature to reflect the ambiguities and uncertainties of the real world and that's great, but sometimes it is a real joy to read a story that ends with such magnificent closure. All mysteries are solved and everything makes sense. It is beautiful.

(I have to admit that I was overjoyed when a group of my fifth period girls persistently voiced their disdain for Dickens' angel in the house Lucie and backed Madame Defarge. I think they may have created a Madame Defarge myspace, actually. Oh how the times have changed.)

"Ms. R--, you got me." "What?" "At the beginning of this book, you said you would get some of us. And that we would love it. You got me." I didn't get you G--. Charles Dickens did. I just introduced you.

Quote:

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

«داستان دو شهر» را می‌توان یک رمان تاریخی دانست. داستانی که در واقع درباره‌ی دو کشور است: فرانسه و انگلستان، و تفاوت‌های اجتماعی و سیاسی آن‌ها. داستان یک جامعه‌ی محافظه‌کار با تغییرات سیاسی تدریجی (انگلستان)، و یک جامعه‌ی انقلابی و طغیان‌گر در برابر ظلم و ستم(فرانسه). البته شاید بهتر باشد بگوییم نقش فرانسه و انقلاب آن در کتاب پررنگ‌تر است، و به عبارتی بخش بزرگی از کتاب نگاه «چارلز دیکنز» و نقد او به عنوان یک نویسنده‌ی انگلیسی به انقلاب فرانسه است.
اما دیکنز حقه‌های دیگری نیز در آستین دارد.
فقر، اشرافی‌گری و بی‌عدالتی
دیکنز درک عمیقی از مسئله‌ی فقر دارد، شاید به این خاطر که در کودکی طعم فقر را چشیده است. فقر از درون‌مایه‌های بیشتر آثار دیکنز (از جمله این کتاب) است.
دیکنز فقر را با طنزی تلخ و هنرمندانه پیش چشم خواننده به نمایش در می‌آورد. این طنزِ تلخ و کنایی در مورد اشرافی‌گری نیز به چشم می‌خورد.
اشرافی که دیکنز از آن‌ها سخن می‌گوید فقط از نظر ثروت با هم‌نوعان خود اختلاف ندارند، آن‌ها «حضرت اشرف‌»هایی هستند که ستم کرده‌اند، ولی نه تنها از چنگ عدالت گریخته‌اند، بلکه بی‌گناهان را به جای خود مجازات کرده‌اند. چون از نظر نظام قضایی نیز برتر از دیگر انسان‌ها هستند. آن‌ها گرفتار غرور و خودبرتربینی هستند، چنان که توده‌ی مردم را به چشم «موش‌هایی کثیف» می‌بینند.
چنین وضعیتی در جامعه‌ی فرانسه زمینه‌ساز انقلاب فرانسه، یا به تعبیر دیکنز، انقلاب خونین فرانسه، با همه‌ی اعدام‌ها، انتقام‌جویی‌ها و خونریزی‌هایش می‌شود. انقلابی که دیکنز علت وقوع آن را با توجه به ظلمی که بر جامعه رفته درک می‌کند، ولی روش وقوع آن را تأیید نمی‌کند. روشی که اگرچه با شعار برابری و برادری و آزادی و به نام جمهوری صورت می‌گیرد، ولی آلوده به خشونت بی‌حد و حصر و قتل و خونریزی و محاکمه‌های پوشالی و اعدام از طریق طنابِ دار، گیوتین و ... است.
باید گفت دیکنز به راستی استاد تصویرسازی‌های کنایی است، مثلا به نظر من یکی از هنری‌ترین بخش‌های کتاب فصل «میخانه» است. فصلی که در آن بشکه‌ای از شراب در محله‌ای از پاریس شکسته و شراب سرخ(در اینجا در مفهوم کنایی خون) بر زمین پخش شده و مردم جمع شده‌اند تا با خوشحالی آن را از روی زمین بنوشند. تصویری که دیکنز در این فصل از مردم پیشاانقلابی فرانسه رسم می‌کند و توصیف شخصیت دلقکی که روی دیوار کلمه‌ی خون را می‌نویسد به راستی زیباست.
عشق
داستان دو شهر در عین حال در بخش‌هایی از کتاب یک داستان عاشقانه هم هست که از نظر من متأسفانه جزو نقاط ضعف داستان است. داستان عاشقانه‌ی کتاب به خوبی پرداخت نشده و شخصیت‌پردازی بعضی از شخصیت‌ها مثل لوسی و چارلز دارنِی ضعیف‌تر از چیزی است که باید باشد. به طور مثال برداشت خواننده از شخصیت لوسی، یک دختر زیبا و احساساتی است و نه بیشتر، شبیه به چیزی که سیدنی کارتِن(از شخصیت‌های کتاب) او را یک «عروسک موطلایی» می‌نامد، در حالی که نویسنده می‌توانست ابعاد عمیق‌تری از شخصیت او را به ما نشان دهد.
داستان به خصوص در دو سوم ابتدایی، تا حدی درگیر نوعی سانتیمانتالیسم است. دیالوگ‌هایی با تعارف‌ها و احساسات اغراق شده و شخصیت‌هایی که مدام با شنیدن این دیالوگ‌ها اشک می‌ریزند.

درباره‌ی ترجمه
به ترجمه‌ی جناب ابراهیم یونسی، که احتمالا مشهورترین ترجمه‌ی بازار هم هست، میتوان نمره‌ی «قابل قبول» داد. ابراهیم یونسی توانسته به خوبی لحن دیکنز را به فارسی برگرداند، اما متأسفانه ترجمه در بعضی بخش‌ها دچار اشکالاتی است که اگر از فیلتر یک ویراستار توانا می‌گذشت می‌توانست به یک ترجمه‌ی عالی تبدیل شود. متأسفانه فرصت نشد سایر ترجمه‌ها را بررسی کنم.(احتمالا ترجمه‌ی مهرداد نبیلی نیز از ترجمه‌های قابل توجه باشد)

پی‌نوشت: جذاب‌ترین قسمت کتاب، یک سومِ پایانی آن است، پس اگر در آغاز، کتاب را خسته‌کننده یافتید، صبور باشید و به خواندن ادامه دهید :)

My review from December 2013 says;

I have just finished A Tale of Two Cities and I am in awe of the story and the man that wrote it. 
This is doubly true today having finished my first re read after 6 years have passed.

This time I could see all the brilliant foreshadowing in every chapter.
I knew where we were going this time and as well as the gripping story, which is horrifying and descriptive of terrors you'd not want in your worst nightmares but were based on factual events such as, The storming of the Bastille, The people accused by other citizans like Madame Defarge based on just observations and very little evidence.

The knitting women were real.
Before the tricoteuse became rejected thugs, they were respected sisters of the resistance
The women were known to hang around the guillotine, waiting for the heads to roll. They got to know the executioners, there were so many death sentences. Between the slices, they knitted. It was automatic — something to keep their hands busy.
More information in this link. https://www.geriwalton.com/tricoteuse...

Quotes;
For my money this is the best opener of any book ever..
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” 

Bookended with the best closing lines ever..
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” 

What a fantastic experience reading this again for the second time. I know that down the road a few more years hence I will read it again and once more be in awe of the story and the man who wrote it.

5***

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!"

It has been quite some time since I’ve read Charles Dickens, excepting of course A Christmas Carol, which is an absolute favorite of mine, and a handful of his other Christmas short stories. Upon joining Goodreads eight years ago, A Tale of Two Cities was the very first book I entered as ‘want to read’. Well, time flies and here I am finally having picked up my copy and actually reading this beloved-by-many classic. While this one doesn’t take the prize for most cherished of novels on my personal list, I absolutely admired this masterpiece. In fact, it is a work that for me was more appreciated as a whole rather than for its individual parts. I needed to complete this to fully grasp the plot and the overall merit of the novel. The final portion was entirely compelling and quite brilliant, in fact.

This is a novel, as the title suggests, of two cities… that of London and that of Paris. It is a historical fiction work beginning in 1775 which then takes us further into the depths and horrors of the French Revolution. There is an abundance of mystery that I was not expecting, but thoroughly enjoyed. In addition to the juxtaposition of the two cities, we also see the contrasts between good and evil, hope and despair, death and rebirth. As suggested in my opening quote, secrets abound and are slowly revealed. Characters are drawn well, as one would naturally expect from Dickens, although I never quite felt the emotional tug towards any of them, until near the end. But when I did reach this point, gosh it was worth it! Sydney Carton… an unforgettable man… sigh. "I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire - a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away." This is a love story, a tale of injustice, of human suffering, and of sacrifice.

When the reader steps through the gates of Paris, one can feel the tension and sense the shadow of what is to come… the atmosphere is so charged with insecurity, suspicion, and dread. "The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there." The madness of the masses is frightening - there are no apologies and no exceptions. If you are born with the wrong blood, happen to land in the wrong place at the wrong time, or sympathize with the accused and the condemned, your life is in danger. The threat of the Guillotine looms like a monster over the people of the city. "Every day, through the stony streets, the tumbrils now jolted heavily, filled with Condemned. Lovely girls; bright women, brown-haired, black-haired, and grey; youths; stalwart men and old; gentle born and peasant born; all red wine for La Guillotine, all daily brought into light from the dark cellars of the loathsome prisons, and carried to her through the street to slake her devouring thirst. Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!" It is heartless and pities no one, much like Madame Defarge.

I feel as if I should be providing a more ‘scholarly’ review of this tremendous work, but I’m not quite up to the task; and you can find a plethora of excellent and more erudite reviews all over Goodreads! I’m really just here to express my personal reaction and feelings towards this one. Quite simply, the writing is excellent, but the story itself failed to grab me initially. At this same time last year, I read Les Misérables – an extraordinary piece of literature without a doubt. I could not help comparing this Dicken’s novel with that of Hugo’s. What was lacking in Two Cities for me was the existence of a character like Jean Valjean, a character so vivid and so sharply drawn that it seems I literally spent weeks in the mind of this tortured soul. Probably, it is not fair to make this comparison, but there you have it. I felt distanced from Dickens’ characters quite a bit more… at least for a good portion of the book. I’m very pleased that I persevered, however, as I was able to reap the benefits of my commitment upon finishing the last words. The development of Sydney Carton was rewarding and the ending of this tale was breathtaking. I don’t often re-read novels, but this one is certainly going to fall in the category of ‘even better the second time around’ – I feel certain of this. My rating is at a firm 4 stars, with the hope that someday the re-read will edge it up to the full 5.

"Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind."

About 30 pages into this book, I was struck with a moment of panic:

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? WHERE THE HELL IS GARFIELD?!?

Had the lasagna-loving feline been uncerimoniously behead on the guillotine before the happenings of page 1? Without my favorite cartoon cat's wry, laid-back sense of wit these are surely THE WORST OF TIMES!

That is when I realized I was reading the classic text A Tale of Two CITIES, by Charles Dickens and not watching the 2006 cinematic masterpiece Garfield: A TAIL of Two KITTIES!

Holy crap! How embarrassing!

Against my better judgement, I decided to keep reading, hoping that at some point Garfield would pop up and say something hilarious about hating Mondays. Well, fellow readers, he doesn't. I repeat: GARFIELD IS NOT IN THIS BOOK! AT ALL!

Instead, Dickens (is that his real name? LOL!) crafts a tale of sacrifice and redemption set against the bleak background of the French Revolution.

Overall, I guess it's an okay book, if you're into the "classics" sort-of thing, but I believe in my heart of hearts that this novel really could've benefitted by AT LEAST a cameo from Jon Arbuckle or something.

An awesome tale of the horrors of political revolution!

What an interesting thought.

If it was possible for Dickens to write something that was less Dickensian than the rest of his impressive body of work, A TALE OF TWO CITIES would qualify as the least Dickensian of them all. An absorbing historical work, a sharply moving forward tempo, little if any comic relief and a minimum of florid prose (at least relative to his own characteristic standard of an abundance of unnecessary embellishment) make A TALE OF TWO CITIES a tense, somber, compelling and moving piece of work that is the shortest, yet perhaps most well known, of his major novels.

The characters, as one would expect from Dickens, are still ambitious, magnificently described creations - Charles Darnay, son of the Marquis Saint Evrémonde, who moves to England and disowns his heritage as part of the ruling French aristocracy; Darnay's look alike, Sydney Carton, a hard-drinking ambitionless lawyer who comes at last to the realization that his life has been wasted; Lucie Manette, the typical Victorian heroine, who lives and loves with a faint heart, teary eyes and heaving bosom; her father, Alexandre Manette, who barely survives a long imprisonment in the Bastille and recovers his health and his reason only in the nurturing environment of his family in England; Jarvis Lorry, the man of business, the Tellson's Bank representative in Paris and the steadfast family friend of the Manettes; Ernest and Thérèse Defarge, the maniacal, metaphorical representatives of France's working class who evolve (or might that be devolve) into the citizens and citizenesses of a post-revolutionary French Republic; and, of course, Jerry Cruncher, a close to the edge Londoner, who makes his dubious living as a "resurrectionist", that is, a procurer of recently deceased corpses for medical research.

Covering the history of London and Paris during the period from 1775, just prior to the onset of the American Revolution, to the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the height of Robespierre's Terror, and the daily bloodshed of the close shaves of France's barber, Madame La Guillotine, A Tale of Two Cities dwells on a multiplicity of themes - romance; unrequited love; altruism; the terrors of revolution; the evils of class distinctions; the power of friendship; the terrifying ability of power to corrupt; and the amazing ability of a faith in God to comfort through troubled times.

If you're already familiar with Dickens, but have yet to read A TALE OF TWO CITIES, run to the nearest library or bookstore, curl up by the fire and read it as soon as you can. If you have yet to try your first Dickens novel, this is a fine place to start. Compose yourself and relax. Be patient and take the time to discover Dickens' style of writing. With the possible exception of Wilkie Collins, I don't believe there's another author who could have got away with writing complex, enormously lengthy paragraphs that, upon hindsight, the reader will discover were but single sentences. Of a sudden, you'll discover you're at the end of the novel. And, I defy you - I defy you - to read the last chapter of A TALE OF TWO CITIES without finding a lump in your throat.

Paul Weiss