What a bore

          You will, undoubtdly, enjoy reading this book if you have nothing better to do in your free time than to read  a dusty, old Englishman's retelling of a once thrilling historical event. I honostly found reading a  history text book on the French revolution more intresting than Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The book lacked any sort of rising action, involving the main characters, until the last fifty or so pages. Don't get me wrong, those last fifty pages were incredibly intreging, but the novel as a whole felt like a gaint let down. When compared to Dickens' other novels, I found this book to be quite lacking in his classic wit and belivable characters. I mean, a doctor that has a mental condtion were he suddenly has to make shoes? Come on, what is that? That's the biggest load of crap I've ever read, and I've read Everyone Poos. Poop jokes aside, it feels as though Dickens was trying to capture the English attitude to the French, pre-Revolution, and, at the same time, twist in his values on the human soul, retribution and revival. However, I got the feeling that, whenever I read these themes, they were the author's impressions, and not the character's natural reactions. Dickens is a wonderful author of romantic novels that are both revealing and moving, however, this is not one of them.  

A Breif Biography of Charles Dickens

          As a child Charles Dickens faced many trails that would alter him into the powerful activist for human rights he would later become. For, Dickens father, John, spent out of his means and was thrown into Debtors Prison along with most of the family, excluding Charles. Charles roomed wtih some family friends and worked at Warren's Blacking Factory; an experience that would haunt him for the rest of his life. After John Dickens and family was bought out of debtors prison by Charles, he got a jobs as a reporter. This would later develop into Dickens often writing his own pieces and later publishing them in local magazines. Not long after his parents were, yet again, residing in debtor's prison and Dickens, yet again, came to their aid. This theme would continue to develop as his relatives continued to hawk him for money. He then began to publish a series of sketches accompanied by illustrations in several magazines. It wasn't until he published The Pickwick Papers  that he became a full-time novelist. He continued to write gaining great fame and respect along the way. His most notable works are:  A Tale of Two Cities (1859), A Christmas Carol (1844), Oliver Twist (1837), David Copperfield (1849). Towards the end of his career Dickens was regarded as a national treasure and was elevated to a celebrity status. He suffered a stroke in 1869 as he began work on what would be his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He suffered another stroke in 1870 which resulted in his death. Upon Charles Dickens death, the nation of Britain honored him by placing his grave in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey. 

Understanding 'A Tale of Two Cities'

        What I find intriguing about this novel is, that it is meant to help inform people of a historical event, though it's not much more interesting than the dry textbooks we have today. Which, is part of the reason Dickens wrote the novel in the first place, for realizing the significance of such an occurrence, and the interest surrounding it, he knew his audience wanted to know more about the French revolution. What better way to give his readers a feel for the revolution than to write an engrossing, dramatic novel about English characters directly effected by the revolution? While taking the reader along the journey that comprised the pre-revolution/early revolution era, Dickens cleverly intertwines themes of redemption and rebirth throughout the novel. The question that is always posed in these situations of rebirth is, is rebirth possible and is rebirth worth the pain? Though, in the beginning of the novel it seems the answer to these questions may be no the conclusion draws a satisfying yes from the reader with the redemption of Sydney.  In the end the book's message is similar to that of the French revolution; it's never to late for redemption, and don't settle with what you have if all you have amounts to nothing. This is defiantly not a book to be written off as just a romanticised take on the French revolution, but rather this is novel of great moral value and engaging historical context.





Main Characters:


Lucie Manette- 
The daughter of Doctor Manette, she is French- born but flees after her father is taken prisoner by the authorities. She later returns to bring sanity back to her father's life and restore him to himself again. she also helped to free Charles Darnay from certain death at the hands of the British court system.


Doctor Manette- 
Father of Lucie, he was a prisoner at the infamous Bastille even after he was released, until Lucie freed his spirit from the confines of the prison. He also testified on behalf of Charles Darnay, and helped bring him back from the brink of death on several occasions.


Charles Darnay-
Husband of Lucie, he renounced his titles of French nobility after becoming disgusted with the nature of it's status. he then travelled to England were he was arrested, tried, and acquitted. Later he remade himself as a prosperous Englishman and married Lucie.


Sydney Carton-
Friend of the Manette's he also testified at Darnay's trail helping prove his innocence by revealing the similarity in appearance between himself and Darnay. He believed himself to be incapable of change and rebirth until the end of the novel when he redeems himself by helping Darnay.    

Word's of King Richard 2 on Peasants revolt of 1381

This audio clip gives one a sense of the attitudet noblemen took towards the peasantry/common folk

Book 3 - A Turn for the Worse (The Track of a Storm)

           At the end of book 2 an important event occurs that inevitably drags the Darnay's back into France and its chaos. Back in France, revolutionaries have seized the estate of Darnay's family and taken its keeper hostage. Feeling obligated to save his loyal servant form certain death, Darnay embarks on a treacherous journey to Paris. He leaves suddenly, without consulting his family, and is eventually captured before reaching his destination. A foolhardy attempt really, for if he had reached the trail of his servant he would've had to reveal his identity as a nobleman, and have been promptly arrested. Upon hearing the news of his capture, Lucie, and her father, Doctor Manette, travel to Paris in an attempt to rescue Darnay. Along the way to Paris they witness dozens of instances that explicitly detail the horrors that the revolution has brought upon the countryside surrounding Paris. On several occasions, the pair are confronted by roving bands of revolutionaries and escape by the thinnest of chances. Once in Paris, the pair finds Darnay on trial, and after Doctor Manette reveals his true identity the crowd holds him in high esteem, as a martyr of sorts, for having been unjustly imprisoned for fifteen years in the Bastille, Darnay is released. The next day, however, a trio of soldiers come and re-arrest Darnay, who is to tried the very next day. The conclusion of the novel is both exciting and unforgettable for it plays heavily on the themes of redemption and resurrection that have appeared throughout the book.    

Understanding the Plight of the French Peasant

Book 2 - Winds of Change(The Golden Thread)

          This book open's with the trail of Charles Darnay, who is being accused of spying for the French government on his multiple trips between England and France. Though incriminating evidence is placed before him, the emotional testimony of Lucie, with whom he had a chance encounter on her return to England, recalls Charles Darnay from certain death. This, combined with the logic of Sydney Carton, who points out the similarity in appearnce between himself and Darnay, results in Darnay's innocence. The fact that Sydney looks like Darnay was no fluke on Dickens' part, moreover, it is a clever means to highlight the distinct differences between the two men. Sydney is a skilled legal assistant who could easily make it big, but lacks the will to do so, and has taken to the bottle to compensate his professional and personal shortcomings. Darnay, on the other hand, is a man of ferverous passion who pursues his goals to their ends. Both men fall in love with Lucie, however, Sydney deems himself unworthy of her love, and asks her for only her pity. Whereas, Darnay, asks for Lucie's hand in marriage, and they happily wed.

        While all of this is taking place, over the channel in Paris, France, the growing hatred for nobility by the common folk is beginning to manifest. Dickens does a wonderful job of illustrating this, often describing the coming storm with very poetic passages. One of the best examples of this is when a barrel of wine is dropped outside of DeFarge's wine shop and it's contents spilled onto the street. Almost immediately, the citizenry come from all around to slurp up the fluid from off the road. People were so desperate to get a taste of this wine that they chewed the pulp of the inside of the wine barrel to get a drop of its sweetness. These adverse conditions were not the only factor in what would later culminate into the French Revolution as Dickens often displays with his description of the foul French nobility. In one instance, a rich noble is racing through Paris on his way to his country villa when his carriage runs over a child. He stops, momentarily, to throw some coins at the pheasant mother, who throws them right back, while the gathering crowd 'spits venom and shouts curses'. He would later comment on his concern for the damaged state of his carriage wheels. It's moments like this that really help to punctuate the growing  uproar in France, and make the entire movement relatable.