A Tale of Two Cities

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: I finished reading this book last week and I couldn't stop reading till 2 in the morning. This book has really inspired me a lot. The sacrifice of Sydney Carton reminded me of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for the humanity. I think this book has really shown what Christianity is about. It's about being in a world without reason, a world where nothing sacred is left behind, and yet shining its light among the darkness. That is what Sydney Carton has shown us, that is what Jesus Christ has shown to the humanity. Sydney Carton gave himself up for three persons but Jesus did for the whole humanity. Dickens is surely one of the greatest writer in the world. When I was a kid I couldn't stop weeping while reading Oliver Twist, and Christmas Carol has also given me an inspiration in one Christmas night. I really love his work!

Rating:
Summary: it desirves more than 5 stars
Review: this is a great bok about how england and france use to be. how the rich people used to be mean to the other. its also a tory about a man who was put to death because he want to keep the beloved people together forever. this is actully my favorite book because while you are reading this book you can actually see it in your imagination.......... you just cant put this book down once you've started... its just a great and awsum book!

Rating:
Summary: Plot Counter Plot
Review: After determining that I would read, and would finish, this 19th century classic, I realized that I had a long walk to walk. However, "A Tale Of Two Cities" has so much to offer, to reject it as tedious would be saying too little. Dickens pokes fun at France and glorifies England as we are engaged in the story of a husband, a wife, their banker friend, their maid, and the wife's newly returned father. Dickens builds two main settings, a dirty corner of Paris with its wine shop and French Revolution supporters, and the the home of the protagonists in the equally minable London. And before the wineshop's owners let the axe fall upon them and their friend's head, there is much for them to do, and many decisions to make. Dickens spends the first two parts introducing characters and loose ends, the deepening them. We can't truly understand his reasonings until the 3rd book, but when he pulls them together and rides to a climax, the effect and ending are something to remember. Not to say there is nothing in the rest of the book - from the verbose / English virtuoso contrasts of beauty and filth to the characters and the real places they frequent - but it certainly is the plot that 20th century writing has established. One critic referred to this Dickens selection as "his most busy," and it brims with meaning, substance, and scenes that you will remembers as yours, but it doesn't feel like the serial it was. Nothing wrong with that, though. There are far, far better things here than I have known...

Rating:
Summary: if you haven't read it since 8th grade, do so
Review: 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."

GRADE: A+

Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I had a bad experience with Dickens. 2 years ago I tried reading Oliver Twist, after seeing the Disney movie, but after going through 3 chapters that took up 40 pages each - but consisted of only 2 paragraphs each, just for Oliver to be born and named, I gave up. Now I'm in 8th grade and as a language arts assignment, we were to read a Dickens novel. It was either A Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations. I saw the Wishbone summary of A Tale of Two Cities and thought it had a nice plot but was dreading going through Dickens's lllooooonnnggg drones.

This time however, Dickens secured my interest with the ideal beginning of "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." I was immediately drawn into the story of mystery and splendor. The characters didn't suddenly multiply like they did before and I got to understand each and every one - from pretty Lucie Manette to the harsh Monseigneur the Marquis.

Dickens's drifting speeches improved as well: turning out to be quite dramatic and interesting. Maybe the book could have been a lot shorter - but it gives you something to think on. And it's definitely better than just having an author say, "okay, this is the story and that's the end." Instead, he gives you a suspensful novel that you are never bored with. You have to carefully follow the story and see how the threads tie together in the end.

. . . Prepare to be amazed!

Rating:
Summary: Dickens' best work, no doubt
Review: I remember trying to read this book in 10th grade and fighting my way through it. In fact, I called it "dark" and had no desire to finish it (which I did not). Years later I picked Cities up again. The second time, I couldn't put it down. What was the difference? Probably the fact that I better appreciated Dickens' style and the way he used symbolism. Everything from "Charles Darnay" (CD, "C"harles "D"ickens perhaps placing himself into the story!) to the Christological implications at the end of the story ("Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.") It's so rich that perhaps you ought to utilize the Cliffs Notes to help you better understand the hidden meanings. To me, everything just came together in the end. Don't let what happened to me the first time occur to you! (I should point out that my high school teacher was worthless when it came to helping me better understand the book--all of my classmates seemed to hate it too. Today, when I teach it, I do my best to explain things and give the students a full experience. Generally, most of them seem to enjoy it.) Read it carefully, keep track of the major players, and be ready for surprises around every corner.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific from Start to Finish
Review: A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a classic from start to finish. Charles Dickens was a rare author of both great commercial and critical success in his day and this book remains a staple of required school reading lists. And rightly so, it is literature at its finest.

Just because the book is required reading should not put off students. Read it from start to finish WITHOUT analyzing it to death. You'll have plenty of time for that later. Read it for the pure pleasure of the prose. That is why Dicken's wrote it (in addition to making a few pounds, but that's another story). You may have to analyze it later, but it is well worth reading it and taking it as it is.

The book also contains the finest beginning and ending....EVER.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good book
Review: I am in the eighth grade, and just finished this book as part of my summer reading. On a reading comprehension test, my reading level was determined to be that of a high school graduate, so I thought I would have no problems with this book. However, I found that Dicken's style of writing was impossible to understand. I had to go back and read paragraphs two or three times before I finally understood their point. I asked myself many times: "Is this book written in English??". Maybe when I am older I will learn to appreciate this story, but right now I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Story, Amamzing Detail
Review: I was required to read this book in a class I was taking. Before I even started the book, I had a negative opinion about the book from what other classmates had told me. When I started to read it, I was amazed. The detail Dickens uses about the characters and especially the mobs was amazing. The characters were well developed, my favorite character being Sydney Carton. His personality traits and idiosyncracies made him seem real and alive. Overall a wonderful book with a great story line.

Rating:
Summary: Master of language and style
Review: A Tale of Two Cities is set in the two cities of London and Paris, in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. A Doctor Manette is brought from France, where he has been wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years, to England where his daughter has been raised. They testify in a trial against Charles Darnay, who is eventually aquitted and later marries Miss Manette. Darnay is really a French nobleman, the Marquis Evremonde, who has left his estate in France to work for a living in humble circumstances in England. During the French Revolution, his representative in the old country is arrested, and the idealistic Darnay goes home to defend this man only to get himself arrested. This occurs during the Terror, and Darnay must expect to be executed as a treacherous emigrant. The final chapters of the book revolve around the effort to save Darnay and his family from the guillotine. The book seems to have two distinct parts. In the beginning, Dickens mainly describes settings and characters, while the plot is mostly invisible. Then, as the end of the book approaches, focus moves to a chain of more or less surprising events, which bind together other seemingly disconnected events in the first chapters. Towards the end, the Tale is almost a Thriller. Dickens reveals himself as a master of the English language, a genius of style and a great wit early in the book. His descriptions rival those of Turgenev, although his descriptions of misery are in a moralizing tone that is never heard from the more subtle Russian. One problem I found with this book is that the characters seem a little too black and white, there is little of the psychological complexity found in, say, the writings of Dostoevski or Ibsen. Two interesting exceptions are Sydney Carton, a family friend with great ability and potential but a life-long lack of self-control, and Dr. Manette, who we find struggling to repress the memory of his imprisonment. A Tale of Two Cities is certainly great literature from a writer who even in the most gloomy circumstances finds something to amuse us. But I find it hard to suffer with his poor virtuous Ms. Manette/Mrs. Darnay with her blonde hair, blue eyes, unlimited loyalty, and talented interior design. She is simply too much, too perfect, too unreal. As for Dickens' description of the Great Revolution, vivid and engaging as it is, it is plagued by the same hyperbolic tendency. A Tale of Two Cities, then, is a highly enjoyable and fascinating read, but it doesn't have the complexity and insight characteristic of the very best novels (in my humble and subjective opinion).