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
                -Sydney Carton

The passage above and the opening of the novel--It was the best of times, it was the worst of times--are among the most often quoted lines from any of Dickens' works, both because they are memorable and because somehow this is the one work of his that we all get assigned in school.  I assume this one is chosen because, while it is still great, it is one of his shorter efforts.

The story should be familiar, Dr. Alexander Manette is freed from his unjust imprisonment in the Bastille and is reunited with his long lost daughter, Lucie, in England.  They are called as witnesses at the treason trial of Charles Darnay, a dashing young Frenchman.  Darnay too is falsely accused, but he is saved, in part by his resemblance to a law clerk named Sydney Carton.  Darnay and Lucie eventually marry, though not before the wastrel Carton declares his love for her and his unworthiness of her.  He pledges that one day he will prove himself worthy by doing her a service.  That opportunity comes when Darnay is condemned to death by a French tribunal and sentenced to the guillotine.

This has been one of my favorite books since the 8th Grade.   There is no more thrilling moment in literature then when Carton takes Darnay's place and bravely faces certain death.  It is a moment of redemption that reminds us that great literature serves human purposes; we may never have such a moment in our own lives, but the example instructs us in how we should face such a situation if the time comes.  We can ask no more of ourselves than the courage and sense of honor to do that "far, far better thing."

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A+) Orrin C. Judd

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Charles Dickens Links:
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    -WIKIPEDIA: Charles Dickens
    -INDEX: Charles Dickens (CrimeReads)
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    -ETEXT: Annotations: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. (Liz Tracey December 14, 2024, JStor Daily)
    -ESSAY: A Christmas Carol in Context: Dickens’ Beloved Festive Fable: Dickens was just six years into his writing career when he penned A Christmas Carol. 181 years on, it remains a beloved festive fable. (Olivia Jordan, , 12/21/24, The Collector)
    -ESSAY: The Remarkable Life of Charles Dickens: Hard Times & Great Expectations: One of the greatest writers of English literary history, Charles Dickens’ rags-to-riches story is as incredible as any of his greatest works of fiction. (Catherine Dent, 12/21/24, The Collector)
    -ESSAY: I Believe in A Christmas Carol (and the Redemptive Power of Memory) (David Bannon, 12/20/24, Christ & Pop Culture)
    -ESSAY: ‘A Christmas Carol’ Marvelously Captured the Holiday’s Victorian Spirit and Inspired New Traditions for Centuries to Come: Published on this day in 1843, at a time when Christmas was undergoing great transformation, Charles Dickens’ novel centered the virtues of kindness, charity and reform (Eli Wizevich, December 19, 2024 Smithsonian)
    -ESSAY: Let's Not Forget Charles Dickens's Other Christmas Ghost Stories!: He loved writing these. There are very many. (Olivia Rutigliano, 12/11/24, Crime Reads)
    -ESSAY: Method, Shmethod (George Saunders, Feb 6, 2022, Story Time)
    -ESSAY: The Crisis That Nearly Cost Charles Dickens His Career (Louis Menand, Feb. 24th, 2022, The New Yorker)
    -ESSAY: Famous Yet Elusive: On Charles Dickens’s Unstable Reputation: “Even in photographs it looked as if his soul had been ‘pumped out of him.’’ (By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, March 1, 2022, LitHub)
    -ARTICLE: Forget Wordle! Can you crack the Dickens Code? An IT worker from California just did (Simon Usborne, 2/7/22, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Festival of the Senses: The ultimate awakening in Dickens' A Christmas Carol. (Dorothy Reno, December 13, 2021, Washington Independent Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: The Liberation of Scrooge : Dickens’ tale is so effective because, in the words of Chesterton, it is targeted not at institutions but “an expression of the human face.” (Richard Gunderman, 12/24/20. law & Liberty)
    -ESSAY: Charles Dickens, the Writer Who Saw Lockdown Everywhere: For the novelist, imprisonment wasn’t just a stain on society; it was an aspect of the self (Laurence Scott, december 2020, The New Yorker)
    -ESSAY: DISCOVERING CHARLES DICKENS' "THE SIGNALMAN": Laurie Loewenstein on a classic Dickens ghost story. (LAURIE LOEWENSTEIN, 10/11/12, CrimeReads)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Let Charles Dickens’s The Chimes Invigorate Your Sense of Hope (Ben Fulton, DECEMBER 29, 2023, Common Reader)
    -ESSAY: Charles Dickens Was Not French: What the Great English and French Novels Reveal About National Character (Daniel Hadas, 12/06/2024, Cafe Americain)
    -ESSAY: Dickens's Other Christmas Book: ‘Every Time a Bell Chimes, A Goblin Gets Its Wings’ (Adam Roberts, Dec 23, 2024, Substack-ships On Fire, Off The Shoulder Of Orion)
    -REVIEW : of 'Savage Reprisals: Bleak House, Madame Bovary, Buddenbrooks' by Peter Gay (Lorraine Adams, Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of Dickens By Peter Ackroyd (Bryan Appleyard, Literary Review)
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Book-related and General Links:
    -Charles Dickens (1812-1870)(kirjasto)
    -ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA: Your search: "charles dickens"
    -etexts of Dickens works
    -Charles Dickens Overview
    -The Dickens Page
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    -David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page
    -Charles Dickens - Gad's Hill Place.
    -Charles Dickens (Most Web)
    -ETEXT: John Forster The Life of Charles Dickens
    -ESSAY: Intimidation and Embarrassment in Conversations of Dickens' Novels (Deniz Tarba Ceylan)
    -CONCORDANCES: Concordances - Dickens, Charles - 55 Works  Text and Search Word Indexes of Classic Books
    -Teaching ìA Tale of Two Cities (John L. Colle, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute)
    -ONLINE STUDYGUIDE: Great Expectations  by Charles Dickens (SparkNote by Brian Phillips)
    -ONLINE STUDYGUIDE: A Tale of Two Cities  by Charles Dickens  (SparkNote by Jessica Jackson)
    -An Outline of the English Novel: The Short List (San Antonio College LitWeb)
    -Literary Research Guide: Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
    -Edgar Johnson: Dickens on the Barricades (NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW:  Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (S E P T E M B E R   1 8 6 1, The Atlantic)
    -REVIEW : of The Master's Voice: Dickens' Journalism Volume IV: The Uncommercial Traveller and Other Papers, 1859-70  Michael Slater and John Drew ed (Dan Jacobson, booksonline uk)

FRENCH REVOLUTION :
    -The French Revolution Home Page
    -SO MANY DIED DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (The Guillotine Museum)
    -The French Revolution: Authors and Texts