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    A Tale of Two Cities
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    A Tale of Two Cities
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    A Tale of Two Cities
    Ebook550 pages15 hours

    A Tale of Two Cities

    By Charles Dickens

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popularThe "two cities" are Paris in the time of the French Revolution, and London. Dr. Manette, a French physician, having been called in to treat a young peasant and his sister, realizes that they have been cruelly abused by the Marquis de St. Evremonde and his brother. To ensure Dr. Manette's silence, the Marquis has him confined for eighteen years in the Bastille. The doctor has just been released, demented, when the story opens. He is brought to England where he gradually recovers his health and his sanity. Charles Darnay, concealing under that false name his identity as the nephew of the cruel Marquis, has left France and renounced his heritage. He falls in love with Lucie, Dr. Manette's daughter, and they are happily married. During the Terror, he goes to Paris to save a servant condemned by the mob. Darnay himself is arrested, condemned to death, and is saved at the last moment by Sydney Carton, a reckless wastrel who acts out of devotion to Lucie. Carton smuggles Darnay out of prison and takes his place on the scaffold, declaring "It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before," surely one of the most quoted lines in all the history of literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLettere Animate Editore
    Release dateJan 28, 2014
    ISBN9788868820336
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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    Reviews for A Tale of Two Cities

    3/5

    16 ratings176 reviews

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    • 4/5
      My favorite Dickens book!
    • 4/5
      A story of the France before and during the French Revolution by Charles Dickens published in 1859 is my favorite Dickens right now. The two cities are London and Paris. The French peasantry had been abused by the aristocracy and revolution broke and the lives of aristocrats was in danger of the guillotine. The story follows several protagonist as is the usual with Dickens. Charles Darnay, a former French aristocrat who gave it up because he detested the way the aristocrats were behaving. He goes to London. Upon return to France because of a letter requesting his help. Charles is taken prisoner by the revolution and sentenced to die. Charles is married to Lucy Manette and has a young daughter. Syndey Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife. This book is a story of love and redemption. The DeFarges operate a wine shop and are revolutionaries. Madame DeFarge is constantly knitting but is very deadly character.
      This was a audio/whispernet kindle book. The narrator did a superb job.
    • 5/5
      "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
      And thus begins what I think is Dickens' best work. Turns of phrases that capture a period of time as though you were there. At his finest, Dickens doesn't tell stories but imprints them on your mind.
    • 5/5
      When I was halfway through this novel I contemplated putting it down and never picking it up again. But I continued reading and from that point on the plot just kept deepening and becoming increasingly intriguing. The first half is essential to understanding the story as a whole so please if you read this do not make the fatal mistake of stopping after the first half. The best feature of this book is the way everything connects at the end and the way the ending gives you an almost contradictory saddened yet rejoicing feeling. All of the various elements of the story including characters tie together at the end to make you get annoyed at yourself for even thinking of letting the book go.After reading this literary work, you will understand Dickens' famous quote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." The contrasting settings add an interest that I as previously stated did not initially latch onto. However, at nearly every moment of the book, this quote can apply to the situation at hand. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who stumbles upon this review and if you do read it, keep an extra close eye out for the character of Sydney Carton because the way in which Dickens develops him is truly miraculous.
    • 5/5
      I read this novel many years ago in high school and have seen at least one movie version over the years. I recently purchased an mp3 player with 100 classic audio novels pre-loaded and this was the first I sampled.This is quite simply one of the finest novels ever written in the English language, by an author who has several other classics to his credit. With the French Revolution as a backdrop, the story revolves around the life and family of a French aristocrat, a young man who has essentially abandoned the trappings of his hereditary titles and estates, relocated and settled in England, only to be drawn back and consumed by the fires of the Paris mob. Many faces of humanity are displayed in this work, from the cold, vengeful visage of Madame DuFarge to the selfless sacrifice of the unlikely hero, Sydney Carton.This novel has everything you could ever want, and is as deep or as simply entertaining as you want to make it. I can wholeheartedly endorse this novel as well as most others penned by Mr. Dickens.
    • 3/5
      I found this book enjoyable though not gripping. And having listened to the audio book, I regret that I may have missed many of the literary elements.
    • 5/5
      Hugely moving. Frequently hilarious. Agape.I wish there was a higher rating I could give. Fabulous, worthy, wonderful book.
    • 3/5
      Dickens places his own spin on the French Revolution in this classic novel. He captures much of the spirit of the time, especially the opposing classes of nobles and peasants, and revisits the themes which dominate so many of his novels - oppression, violence, and injustice. While A Tale of Two Cities does make a good story - I was impressed by the final sacrifice of Sydney Carton - I could not really get into the story.
    • 5/5
      My favorite Dickens novel. It takes a little while for all the pieces to fall into place but the story is so poignant and always makes me teary at the end. Sydney Carton is one of the best characters in English literature!
    • 4/5
      Another prominent Dickens masterpiece. This novel puts a human face to the French revolution. Regardless of how true its representation of the revolution is, it depicts the suffering of many innocent people that happens in any revolution, where the tide of change sweeps the good and bad equally, and where the human perception of violent and brutal acts changes from outright condemnation to what can be described as enjoyment.
    • 4/5
      Great book in so many ways, most of which I am sure will have been covered by other reviewers, so I'm just going to go ahead and get this off my chest:Ok Charlie, I get it, it's a metaphor. Your metaphor is about as subtle as a breeze block across the head, do you really then need to spend the next paragraph explaining exactlty what it means? I'm not a complete imbecile!There, I did it. I can relax now.
    • 3/5
      A tough, but rewarding read.Chances are very great I would have never read this classic if I wasn't going to teach it. Furthermore, I would have never assigned it to high school students, and I feel guilty for doing so.It's Dickens, and the language, tone, and approach is acutely Victorian. All the sentimentality of the Victorians are there with Dr. Mannette and his daughter, Luce, as well as with Sidney Carton's own morose, fatalisitc, and subservient behavior. If you combine the aforementioned with sentences that stack dependent clauses, long appositives, and long phrases upon the independent clause or clauses, the risk of the reader losing focus becomes a real possibility. I'm glad I didn't resort to the "Ol' Cliffnotes" ruse, but it would have been totally understandable if one did.Instead, I sloughed myself through it. As much as I have prior knowledge of the French Revolution, Dickens portrayal of the bloodlust of that time was unforgettable. Such numbers who were arbitrarily chosen for victims of the guillitine, and mob mentality, Dickens conveys all too vividly--in particularly "The Grinding Wheel" chapter of the mob killing the prisoners. Although I rated A Tale of Two Cities with three stars, it is a great read, but one that requires a really great deal of concentration and amazing resolve to finish, and I am glad I did so.I plan to read more of Dickens, as soon as I can regain my literary senses of patience and resolve, all which have been expended after this one.Whew!
    • 3/5
      Very different to the other Dickens novels I have read. This is a little more cryptic, and more adventurous in its prose style. I particularly admired the style in which the dialogue during the early court case was handled. Everyone is familiar with the line that occurs right at the end of this novel, though it is worth ploughing through the sometimes tricky plot, to find out exactly how the quote fits in.
    • 4/5
      I love History, but this was a tad too slow.
    • 3/5
      I'm not really sure what to say about this; parts of it were really good, but huge chunks felt like filler. It's rather obvious that this was published as a serial; a substantial amount of it has the feelings of a "penny a page" hack type work. The overall story was good, but just so.much.crap in the middle of it.
    • 4/5
      First of all, Dickens deserves some credit for creating the popular image of the French Revolution. Its portrayal in movies and other books such as The Scarlet Pimpernel series is based far more on A Tale of Two Cities than on reality. He also earns some points for the fact that, being Dickens, he shows remarkable sympathy for the poor in France leading up to the revolution. Even if once the revolution begins he tends to depict them as fiendish vultures and the the entire period of the republic as just as bloody as the most intense weeks of the Terror, he shows the justification for the revolution more than many of the authors who followed him did. The story itself is serial melodrama, but it's very good serial melodrama, and holds up to rereading.
    • 4/5
      Less flowing and coherent than I expected. Sections are good (and highly quotable) reads but the frequency of quotations from this isn't a reflection of the prose throughout - overall it is very uneven. Different for Dickens, in that it is historical, but the same in that his reliance on outrageous coincidence and the Victorian trademark sentimentality are strongly present. The city hopping makes it still more bitty.
    • 3/5
      Listened to this on CD. 20 CDs. I am a Dickens fan, but this one was too much for me. To romance-y and not hilarious like Pickwick, and often kind of stiffly moralistic and prune-faced. So far this is my least favorite Dickens, by about a mile. It's still better than 90% of everything else, of course. Dickens' characters are so rich, so real, and ultimately so believable.
    • 5/5
      This was a great read! Dickens at his best!
    • 3/5
      The least Dickensy of Dickens's novels. Not my favorite, but still better than Barnaby Rudge.
    • 5/5
      A Tale of Two Cities is at once a factual horror story and a fictional romance.Set in both London and Paris at the time of The French Revolution, it offers a terrifying portrayalof the descent of human beings, both aristocrats and peasants, into murderous anarchy.That Sydney Carton, whose full story we never learn, makes the ultimate sacrifice does not balance or redeem the sheer horror of what Dickens has described.And what of Charles Darnay? - whose reckless trip plunged his family and friends into a blood soaked city - how will he face the days of his life knowing that his stupidity cost his friend his life?Charles Dickens gives us a masterful skewing of the governments of both France and England,as well as toppling their religious leaders.
    • 5/5
      One of my favourite Dickens novels, with a gripping plot and memorable characters, and an ending that will make the strongest man sob like a child.
    • 2/5
      Even though I have never been a fan of Charles Dickens, I was a firm believer in all the hype - until now. A Tale of Two Cities is surely not 'the greatest of his historical novels', and can only be called 'one of the most beloved of Dicken's stories' because it's also one of his shortest. Over five, agonising days, I struggled with this choppy, weakly cast 'classic', falling asleep on the bus and being easily distracted from my task, because Two Cities is supposed to be the best F-Rev novel ever written, but I can now officially disagree. Read The Scarlet Pimpernel instead - Orczy might not be a 'literary' author, and she favoured the aristos over the peasants, but at least she could pace a story to keep the reader interested. I think Dickens cribbed the major historical events straight from Carlyle, and then kept skipping merrily through the lives of his characters in a paragraph, to the point where I thought I was reading the abridged version (some hope).The only character I cared for in the whole novel is Sydney Carton, who then disappears for most of the story. He is a wonderfully flawed romantic anti-hero who can carry off sentimental dialogue like: 'I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.' Unfortunately, the woman he falls in love with is the pathetic, golden-haired, Victorian fantasy child-bride, Lucie Manette, who is already married to a guy who looks just like Sydney, but lacks his personality. Lacks any personality. Charles Darnay and Lucie deserve each other, quite frankly - she is so good and pure and sweet, to the point where she spends most of the novel on the floor in a dead faint, and he is a nincompoop nobleman. I found myself siding with Madame Defarge, the psychotic tricoteuse baying for Darnay's blood. The only other character who didn't annoy me is Miss Pross, Lucie's companion - the battle royale between her and Madame Defarge is one of the best parts of the novel!Needless to say, I probably stand alone in being unable to recommend this 'classic' novel of the French Revolution - Two Cities is basically the same old wordy and repetitive narrative ('weep for it! weep for it!'), interrelated characters and uninspiring heroines that Dickens is famous for. Only the opening paragraph - you know the one, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' - and the last line from Sydney Carton - 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, that I have ever done' - make this a memorable work.
    • 5/5
      A classic for all ages.
    • 4/5
      Though typically assigned as part of the curriculum in American high schools, most readers at this stage of their lives won't appreciate the spectacle and may walk away thinking they've learned a history lesson. However, Dickens was known to play fast and loose with historical facts, molding them as needed to suit his story, and what a story it is. France is boiling over, the common folk have been bled dry, financially, physically, politically, by the elite, aristocratic class. Owning no property, they can barely raise enough food to sustain themselves, and often, when the taxman cometh to claim the right of the landowners and obtain their due, the common folk may well starve. Conspiracies are hatched, freed prisoners are exploited, lists are kept.Against this backdrop, a Frenchman escaping his family's past marries a woman who has only recently found that her father is very much alive and did not perish in a political prison in France. Residing in England, the happy family should be able to escape the terribly bloodletting about to overwhelm the Gallic countryside. Alas, this is a Dickens tale, so contrivances and surprise, almost incredulous plot points are the rule and our heroes find themselves caught up in the Revolution and a possible date with the guillotine.Less socially critical than his earlier work, Dickens still manages to blame the Terror on the hubris of the wealthy elites; after all, you can only keep a populace oppressed for so long. Yet, the overexuberance of the reprisals and the score-settling of the tribunals and executioners is also cast in a murky light.Read it as the romantic adventure it was meant to be, not as the erroneous historical narrative which has assumed mythological proportions. Fun? Yes. Accurate? In a broad, overly generalized way. As a fine example of the cliffhanger storytelling which dominated mid 19th century English literature, it rightfully assumes its place amongst the classics.
    • 4/5
      Heart strings definitely pulled on this one. I never had to read this in high school, and I'm actually glad because I don't think I would have appreciated it as much. I enjoyed the blend of history, drama, and romance. The characters are all so richly developed, you really become vested in their respective journeys. I practically cried reading the last paragraph. Awesome.
    • 2/5
      Okay, so technically I haven't finished reading it but as far as I am concerned I have. Let's not be pedantic about this - I read over half and found it so excruciatingly tiresome that I couldn't force myself through the remaining pages. I looked up what happened next on wikipedia and concluded that nothing much happened next that would validate me wasting more hours or days dragging myself through a book I did not like.For a book that is "One of the most beloved of Dickens' stories" according to the quote on the front cover or "The greatest of his historical novels" I feel very cheated and rather sad too.This book starts with the famous opener: "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."That is fantastic! Reading that I thought I was going to be onto a good 'un! However, just shows that you can't judge a book by its opening paragraph.I have loved Bleak House, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol so it's a shame I find myself giving two stars to an author I have loved in the past. I'm glad this was not my first Dickens as I do not think I would have read any others. I am very disappointed in this book as well as in part, myself for not finishing it. This would have made a much better short story I believe. There was not a plot worth speaking of and the characters were all very thin and one dimensional. Much of the French revolution was described in metaphors and complex symbolism unravelling it all was a bit like trying to find your way through a maze.I have loved Dicken's writing style, it is beautiful, humorous and full of heart, soul and humanity. However, this time it felt like digging my way through a lot of surplus words which had lost their effect long before I could appreciate them. I don't know what got into Dickens when writing this book. It felt very empty and devoid of his usual humour and interesting characters. I can't wait to read another one of his and put this one firmly at the back of my memory so that I can once again hold a high opinion of Charles Dickens.
    • 5/5
      Summary: Ahhh Dickens and one of my favorites.
    • 5/5
      I re-read this after first reading it about 12 years ago in high school. I remembered it as a slow burner, taking a while to build momentum but having an unforgettable ending, and I was pleased to find that I like it more on the 2nd read. I'm now in a position to appreciate the more subtle literary flourishes that Dickens employed -- all of the wonderful foreshadowing, and social commentary through satire and irony. It's an intensely satisfying read, with a wonderful story and memorable characters, less cartoonish than any of his previous works. Sydney Carton is the tragic hero of modern times, and his devotion to Lucie is a beautiful thing to witness. The characters help make the emotional impact of the story stronger than almost any other book I've ever read. Sure it's cheesy, and very contrived in all of the coincidental meetings among characters, but it's toned down as far as Dickens go. The last two pages equal those of 100 Years of Solitude as my favorite all-time endings.

      I'm almost done with reading all of Dickens' later works. And of Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, and this, Tale is my favorite, followed closely by Bleak. List subject to change, as I still have Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend to go.
    • 3/5
      I liked the book but I think it should have boon a little shorter and less wordy.