Cons: Can be dense; Some might not like the coincidences so common with Dickens
The Bottom Line: Dickens' view on the French Revolution is interesting and valid, even today. While the use of coincidence may be off-putting, it by no means destroys the story.
arkhaine's Full Review: Carol Hegarty and Carol Hegarty ( editor ) - A Tal...
A Tale of Two Cities is Dickens' vision of the French Revolution, a character drama given much extra weight by the enormous social, political and economic upheavals that were happening in France in the late eighteenth century. While the beginning of the novel is languorous and meandering, skipping half-decades and years as it sees fit, the end of the novel focuses upon the tumultuous time in Paris when the citizens took back the reins of power from the aristocracy. Because of this, there is an undercurrent of danger and urgency that perfectly matches the danger and urgency of the main plot, as Charles Darnay's heritage is revealed and his fate is sealed while his horrified wife and father look on, impotent.
Because of the sheer magnitude that is the backdrop to a Tale of Two Cities, it is easy to forget the quiet, measured conversations of the main characters and focus upon the brief episodes of carnage, confusion, destruction and death, scattered throughout the novel as the Revolution picks up speed, decimating the lives of everyone involved - peasant and aristocrat alike. Whole chapters are a cacophony of sounds, actions, weapons and blood, in the reading, it is almost as though the reader themselves are lost within the time period described, fighting alongside the men in the streets, knowing only what they know, but realising it in the full, deadly detail that such an occasion. demands.
Lucie Manette, a young British woman, has found her father years after he disappeared - presumed dead. They re-unite and he is a vague, confused shell of the man she knows only through the stories of Mr Lorry, a banker. But the goodness of her love is enough to win his mind back, and the two are re-united properly. She eventually marries and has a child, then the Revolution begins and her husband, Charles Darnay, the man who swore on his wedding day to Dr Manette never to reveal his secret to his wife, is recalled back to Paris to account and atone for the mistakes of his family. Another friend, Sydney Carton, a lonely, self-deprecating but brilliant lawyer who wants more than anything else to share in the rainbow of love that Lucie offers to Charles, travels to Paris as well.
In Paris, Madame Defarge and her husband, important elements in the Revolution, live their lives peacefully and quietly, all the while plotting for the eventual success of the 'common man' against their oppressors. Her heritage is linked inextricably with Darnay - at least in her mind - and it is through these two families - one in England, one in France - that the story unfolds.
When not exploding into violent prose concerning the endless bloodshed in Paris, Dickens is content to have his characters slowly wander through life, stopping often for leisurely conversations and lofty ruminations. Even towards the end, the scenes which are played out seem so minor when compared to the calamity around them, and yet, at the same time, are indicative of the world in which they live. In all bloody times, there are intimate family dramas being played out, some more or less significant, but all important to those involved.
Throughout the novel, subtly, the guillotine is deified and the sweet rustling of Lucie Manette's dresses fade away into the background as the symbols of war become more important than the people. This is perhaps one of the most important themes in the book, and one that is well and truly made evident by the end. In the final few scenes, in which one of the characters make a heroic, unbelievably sad sacrifice for his friends - who, even sadder, do not appreciate or even realise, some of them - an important statement is made, a poetic song to the unspoken stories of war is sung: That the people are, as always, more important than impossibly epic events happening around them, and that once this is forgotten, as it inevitably is, then the cause is lost, and everyone suffers.
It was the time of the French Revolution...a time of great change and great danger. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and ...More at Christianbook.com
A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a fami...More at Barnes & Noble.com
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