Dickens classic classic (purposefully repeated) tale centred around an English domiciled French family during the French Revolution in which he draws the love of his main female protagonist as the catalyst that beckons her suitors page by page to the blood splattered streets of Paris. The better of his his historical dramas, with one of the most famous opening lines ever written. 6 out of 12.

2009 read

Ανεπανάληπτοι χαρακτήρες( εκτός απο την Λούσι που ήταν απλά όμορφη και αντε και κάπως αποφασιστική στην αρχή αλλα μετα χάνεται), υποδειγματική εξέλιξη της πλοκής και κλιμάκωσης της έντασης. Αποδεικνύεται περίτρανα γιατί ο Ντίκενς είναι απο τους δημοφιλέστερους συγγραφείς που πέρασαν ποτέ απο τον κόσμο τούτο. Γιατί ψυχαγωγεί και δημιουργεί προσοδοκίες πείθοντας σε να συνεχίσεις την ανάγνωση.

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."

I first read this in high school as a substitute for "Oliver Twist" which was not in my high school library catalog. Come to think of it now, I have never read that book. Weird... If ever I get a chance to meet "high-school-me", I bet she will be over the moon and back to know that the world is her library! Any book, on demand! I guess it would distract her enough not to realize she has no social life. Anyway...

"A Tale of Two Cities" is, once again, one of those books I have read when I was too young to understand. I still struggle reading this book, but this time around, it generated more empathy from me. Charles Dickens wrote this novel long after the French revolution but it was still timely. Centuries later, in the here and now, it's major themes still hold true. Any generation, in my opinion, could start their story with, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...."

Dickens explores human emotions and reactions that aren’t specific to any one historical event. Human suffering isn’t simply an 18th-century French problem. The novel, with all of the poverty and injustice it displays, is an exploration of conditions that will persist just as long as violence and inequity continue to flourish.

Although this book is a major social critique, it’s also an exploration of the limits of human justice. What is justice really? When does justice start becoming injustice? It provokes big questions and they’re still pretty relevant today. Can you imagine a country in which innocent people are persecuted for their political view? The closer I look, the more the false imprisonment of Dr. Manette or Charles Darnay becomes something that we deal with in the real world, as well as the fictional one.

"A Tale of Two Cities" is also a meditation on some of the most pressing existential questions that trouble humankind. Do we really know anything at all about the people around us, even the people we love? Can a single life make a difference in a world filled with hatred, rage, and violence? Times of strife make these questions all the more pressing to answer, but, as Dickens reminds us, that doesn’t mean that the answers are easy to find.

This was difficult to read but it still managed to captivate me and forgo doing the dishes. I'm quite happy to give this book another chance. Books that disappointed me before might change my mind at some point in my life. As always, I don't confuse my own lack of sympathy with the assumption that, if I don't get it, the book is necessarily flawed. I think that's why classics endure.

Maybe this should be called An Unbelievable Tale of Underdeveloped Characters

I feel a bit cheated on this one as it started off with a great deal of promise. A fine cast of characters, poor and rich, clever and thick, good and evil all set in late 18th Century London and Paris. Oh, and there was a bonus, the French Revolution became more prominet as the story developed.

I did bring my 'best reader' to this story - I promise. I was on Dickens' side. "Go Charlie" - my 3 pups heard me shout after 30 or 40 pages. Yes, this could be as good as The Count of Monte Cristo!!

The conclusion I have come to is this. No matter how interesting the characters of a story are initially, no matter how promising the premise, no matter how much you are looking forward to the experience - it doesn't matter a hoot if the characters are like cardboard cut-outs and the author does't seem to care about them resulting in this reader caring about thm even less.

This glaring fault was majestically combined with a storyline that had so much promise, but ended up being so unfathomably unbelievable it was yes........unbelievably unfathomable.

I'm not trying to be funny, nor am I trying to be overly negative. In some way I think Dickens was trying to be too clever by half, I'm yet to read the reviews of others yet - surely I can't be the only one?

Now I write all of this knowing, there are much, much cleverer readers out there than I, and there are literary academics who would die in a ditch and fight me over the vitriol written in this 'review' (of sorts - well it's more about an experience really, or lack of it).

I started at rating this story at 3 Stars, but after writing this 'review' - I'll give it 2 Stars

For an avid Francophile, I notoriously don't like books set in France. I've read this twice before, once in high school where I gave it five stars, and once sometime after, where I gave it one. I feel middling about it this time around.

Charles is fine. Sydney is sad, and I'm into that. I find myself bored by Lucie, and wonder how on earth Will and Tessa would name their child after her. However, on making it to that series, I don't like that Lucie either, so I suppose it's fine. Five stars for Dr. Manette.

"Τσακίστε την ανθρωπότητα ξανά με παρόμοια βαριά σφυριά και θα γεννήσει ξανά τα ίδια τσακισμένα, απελπισμένα πλάσματα. Φυτέψτε ξανά τον σπόρο της ληστρικής εκμετάλλευσης, της τέλειας περιφρόνησης του νόμου και της καταπίεσης και θα θερίσετε ξανά τη σοδειά της οργής."

Έχουν ειπωθεί τόσο πολλά και τόσο ωραία λόγια για το υπέροχο αυτό μυθιστόρημα του Τσαρλς Ντίκενς και το πως μια ιστορία που διαδραματίζεται μεταξύ Λονδίνου και Παρισιού στα τέλη του δεκάτου ογδόου αιώνα, πριν και κατά τη διάρκεια της Γαλλικής Επανάστασης, μπορεί ακόμη να συγκινεί τόσο βαθιά (και να προβληματίζει εξίσου για το ποιόν της ανθρώπινης φύσης, κυρίως όσον αφορά την ευκολία με την οποία ο καταδυναστευμένος μπορεί να γίνει στυγνός δυνάστης ο ίδιος), που κάθε περαιτέρω αναφορά, και δη από έναν αναγνώστη που η σχέση του με τον κόσμο της λογοτεχνίας είναι εντελώς ερασιτεχνική, δίκαια θα χαρακτηριζόταν ως πλεονάζουσα. Συνειδητά, επομένως, επιλέγω τη σιγή, αναθυμούμαι κάθε σπουδαία εικόνα που γέννησε στη σκέψη μου η πένα του Συγγραφέα και χαιρετίζω συγκινημένος το μεγαλείο της αυτοθυσίας ενός μυθιστορηματικού ήρωα που δεν θα ξεχάσω ποτέ∙ Σίντνεϊ Κάρτον λέγεται.

وقتی تصمیم گرفتم سراغ یه کتاب دیگه از چارلز دیکنز برم، دلم یه داستان کامل از میون زندگی آدم‌های سال‌ها قبل رو میخواست. یه رمان کلاسیک که وسطش از اضافه گویی شخصیتا و احساسات عجیب غریبشون اذیت نشم. و خب این کتاب دقیقا همون چیزی بود که میخواستم.
یه داستان جذاب از بطن حوادث انقلاب کبیر فرانسه که از لندن شروع میشه و در پاریس به پایان میرسه. بنظرم دیکنز قبل از هر چیز قصه گوی ماهریه. واقعیت و تلخی جامعه رو جوری از لابه‌لای زندگی شخصیتاش تو صورتت می کوبونه که بعد از تموم شدن کتاب دلت میخواد برگردی و دوباره تمام تلخیش رو‌ تجربه کنی. واقعیت آشنای تمامی انقلاب هایی که اتفاق میفتن، تکرار میشن و به بیراهه میرن...

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***

This was a re-read of an old favourite for me. It's been about 25 years, though, so long overdue. I'm not even going to try to review this masterpiece but let me just say one thing:

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...'

Arguably the best opening line of any book ever written... but wait!

'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...'

Definitely the best closing lines of any novel ever written and I will brook no frickin' argument on this one!

Both those quotes? From this book. 'Nuff said, fellow readers; 'Nuff said...

"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."

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