Product Description: Must one honorable man pay for the sins of his cruel, aristocratic family? Can an old man brutally wronged by that family find forgiveness before it's too late? And will history--the sweeping violence of the French Revolution--force father to betray child in his search for vengeance? A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's immortal story of love and ultimate sacrifice.
Makes a Decent Movie, But the WORST Book Dickens Ever Wrote!! It's almost criminal that this book is so popular. Anyone who is a true admirer of Dickens' work would toss his or her copy in the trash as I did mine. Admittedly, it's one of his shorter works. I believe this is why it's so widely read in schools (and, yes, I can understand a sentimental attachment on the part of otherwise intelligent readers who read the book at a young age). There are so many excellent novels by Dickens (Martin Chuzzelwitt, Barnaby Rudge, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood, etc.) that I felt betrayed by Mr. Dickens when I finally read "A Tale of Two Cities" and realized what a profoundly bad piece of writing it is. As with any prolific writer, not everything this genius set to paper is worth reading. Pass up "A Tale of Two Cities", suck it up and grab one of his longer, far better works. You'll be surprised just how quickly 799 pages can fly by (as consolation, his chapters are generally very short!). It's well worth the effort. While you're at it, if you're still in the mood for Victorian melodrama, pick up something by Dickens' buddy, Wilkie Collins. His "Moonstone" is famous, but he wrote several other highly entertaining works as well.
Epic tale of the Human Spirit Was Charles Dickens a poet? Conversely, perhaps his structure and style are no longer suited to today's rushed lifestyle, as some reviewers lament. I believe Dickens is one of the most magnificent story tellers ever to put pen to paper, portraying vivid landscapes that are often as vital as his characters in affecting events. Dickens, like Shakespeare, could never be told in TV length segments, or using today's best seller pablum.
'A Tale of Two Cities' is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. The prose is lyrical, the story telling awe inspiring, the tale simply unforgettable. It left a mark on my soul.
I remember my first reading of Shakespeare, and stumbling hopelessly through the pentameter and 'backward' structure. Thankfully a wonderful metamorphosis occurred and somewhere along the way I realized my mind had assimilated both meter and verse, and my unconscious brain was giddy with the beauty of it. I experience Dickens the same way. His unfamiliar style blends into the rich tapestry of his work, adding a depth and clarity that is difficult to imagine without it. And like Shakespeare, we are most assuredly on a journey of wondrous descriptive and emotional insight.
'A Tale of Two Cities' is a definitive description of the French Revolution, although it is a work of fiction. Dickens intricately weaves these momentous, earth shattering events through the lives of a small chorus of individuals, all hoping to cope with a world threatening to devour them at any moment. His strength in describing how each acts within such tumultuous times creates a fantastic story all its own. But Dickens is only getting started. In his own ingeniously inevitable style, he compels events and characters together in a climax of towering suspense. With a courageous act of human spirit our true hero takes center stage as he equals the desperate call that only rebellion and war can advance.
Through it all, Dickens remains himself; constructing beautifully intricate foundations, dropping seemingly innocuous small details in the midst of sub chapters which at the time are much more important, slowly composing the story with the sense of a trickle of a stream leading to the river and the rapids and the waterfall, gaining an urgency and crescendo until the sound and the fury of the story becomes a palpable beating in one's chest. Is the book a love story? Is it historical fiction? Is it the tale of rabid crowds taking over noble causes? Is it man vs. nature, or a story of a man who rises to his destiny? Yes, it is.
"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, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
With arguably the most famous first sentence of a book in all of literature, I shall leave you with one more thought if you are not sure if you like Dickens. Or perhaps you already tried to read him and felt unconnected; but perhaps you were too young then, or too busy, or distracted. And perhaps you're ready now, to leave everything behind, to curl up in a chair, preferably with a warm fire and a glass of wine, and rediscover him. Read `A Tale of Two Cities' when you are ready, with an open heart. Dickens will inspire you to song and tears. For I assure you, that somewhere along the way, you will make a start, or you will stand up and stretch, and you will realize that he has somehow profoundly altered your view, and that you will never really be quite the same again. And you will cherish him, as I do, and the beauty with which he writes, and his faith, win or lose, of the human spirit to endure all else.
Dickens made a believer out of me. Dickens does a superb job in conveying how insensitivity of careless brute can meet pitiless vengence.
A Tale of Two Cities is really a wonderful book, and I enjoyed it immensely. So immensely, in fact, that I immediately searched for an appropriate edition that would do the book justice, and I am glad to announce that I have found it. If you are to purchase a copy of this great book, get the one that is published by Vintage Classics. Not only does this book have a wonderful, colored illustration of a certain character (readers who have read this book know who), the cover and pages are thick and durable, not to mention acid-free (many publishers like Penguins do not use acid-free paper). Also, the binding is thick and very sturdy, and the font is of a comfortable size, unlike the mass-paperback editions. This book can make a wonderful gift to someone special, or a wonderful gift to oneself. In either case, it is best to keep in mind that this edition is really the best to get of this tale.
Relevant and Interesting This classic story by Charles Dickens makes many allusions to history during the French Revolution. The characters are laden with emotion, and the book makes for excellent reading. The only peeves of mine are that the language is a bit difficult for some, and several of the characters don't show any personality; in their dialogue, you can't make out what they are feeling, specifically Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
