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A Tale of Two Cities ()


Amazon.com Top 100 Books of the Millenium (50)

    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+)


Websites:

Charles Dickens Links:
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    -WIKIPEDIA: Charles Dickens
    -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)
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-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"
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    -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