Rating: 
Summary: Tis' a far, far better thing leaving this book alone
Review: I love the classics. So many are just great stories with interesting characters, whose lives are spliced together usually in one way or another to add to the complexity. But with this one, I had more than a few issues. Coming off of reading Hugo's "Les Miserables" (an excellent book, go read!), I expected more of the same from Dickens, the subject matter is much the same. But this book was just so *dry*...don't get me wrong, Dickens has a very good way of describing events and people, albeit it he's excessive about it. An earlier post said that he spent 3 pages describing Lucie's furrowed brow upon discovery of Charles incarceration in France. This is very true. I remember 5 pages being spent reading about the weather and road conditions early in the book and thinking "couldn't he have just abridged it a bit"? Sydney I guess is supposed to be a hero of sorts, and while what he did in the end was a noble thing, I couldn't help but be annoyed by the guy. He spent the entire book lamenting himself, and I just don't like spending my time feeling sorry for people who are more than capable of helping themselves. The language can be very confusing, but I am happy to say that grabbing Cliff's Notes never entered my mind. I guess you should read this thing, but only if you have a lot of time on your hands...if nothing else you'll be able to tell your friends, "Yup, I read A Tale of Two Cities". Then put it back up on the shelf and let it collect dust.
Rating: 
Summary: Great in the end
Review: A Tale of Two cities was boring until you got to about page 300. At that point, all the information that you have come across earlier in the book is tied together and suspence is added. I recommend the book to those who have time on their hands and an extended vocabulary.
Rating:
Summary: It Was The Best Of Times It Was The Worst Of Times
Review: I think the book was very complex and hard to start off, the book continually rotated settings from London to Paris and Paris to London. But as the book continued the it becomes more interesting and the plot connects together, putting suspense and the utter most thrill in the story.
Dickens made the book very discriptive so that everything can set out in your mind. He made the characters individually have their own personality, some good, some bad, and even ones that change drastically and unexpected which would probably be the reason that the book was so rividing. I felt as if the French Revolution came alive with its violent reflection of the revolting of the lower class and the DeFarges, expecially Mrs. Defarge and the other women who had more rage in them, because they were also looked down upon men. Also the relationship of love and hate expressed in all the characters in the story, made the book easier to understand how they felt.
Rating: 
Summary: Dickens' Apocalypse
Review: From the very first line of "A Tale of Two Cities," the reader encounters a spiraling, all-consuming force, determined to destroy all in its wake. Impending doom pervades every chapter; the pace of our descent is ever-quickening. When the day of reckoning comes, it is only by the self-sacrifice of one of our protagonists that others are spared the same cataclysmic fate. Using the Terror of revolutionary Paris as the setting for his apocalypse, Dickens explores themes of destiny and redemption. He also gives us a darkly humorous insight into the grisly world of eighteenth century London - my personal favorite being the aptly named "Resurrection Men" - i.e., graverobbers digging up corpses for medical research.
Rating:
Summary: Unsurpassed...yea right
Review: According to historical sources, Dickens was paid by the word for his books. Thus, I infer that the long, winded and boring passages Dickens exhibits in A Tale of Two Cities must indicate his greediness. Though I'm only 16, I can still identify well written books. If one is seeking a great novel, I suggest 1984 by George Orwell.
Rating: 
Summary: Good plot, terrible characters
Review: I loved the plot. But I hated the characters. Lucie, Charles, Dr. Manette, and Mini-Lucie. The hero and heroine was beautiful, perfect, wonderful, nice, talented, etc, etc. Typical Barbie Doll Love story. If Lucie was as great as Dickens wrote her out to be, she would've married Sydney. He needed her more. Instead, she went with the more conventional Charles. And how Lucie was so surprised that Madame Defarge didn't feel sorry for her and pity her, etc. Madame Defarge had to be a very evil, evil woman not to like such a wonderful Lucie, well, I'll tell you something. Lucie sickened me. She was so perfect, it was like drinking a cup of water fully saturated with sugar. And then not brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth. That was what reading about the perfection of Lucie and Charles and Dr. Manette was like. I related to Sydney and a little of Madame Defarge, because they showed basic human emotions of revenge, low self-esteem, hate, etc. Which the main characters did not. This is what will always keep Dickens from being a great writer in my list, his obsession with perfection and his dodging of the real world with real people and real emotions. I would read this book for the sake of Sydney. He was a great character. The depth, the tortured soul, and the person that existed within.
Rating:
Summary: what a great book!
Review: I first read this book in high school, and only half-heartedly, like so many things I did in high school. I'm 40 now, and have just finished reading the novel again. It's a very compelling and exciting story. Dicken's prose is beautifully poetic. And the novel's a tear-jerker! I missed that somehow when I was 17.
Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Two Cities
Review: The more Dickens I read, the more impressed I become at his skill as a writer. No matter the form, be it short, long, or a monolith like some of his best works, Dickens excels at changing his style of characterization and plot to fit whatever mode he writes in. "A Tale of Two Cities" is one of his shorter novels, and he manages to make the most of out of the allotted space. The compression of the narrative sacrifices Dickens's accustomed character development for plot and overall effect, but what we get is still phenomenal. "A Tale of Two Cities" begins in 1775, with Mr. Lorry, a respectable London banker, meeting Lucie Manette in Paris, where they recover Lucie's father, a doctor, and mentally enfeebled by an unjust and prolonged imprisonment in the Bastille. This assemblage, on their journey back to England, meets Charles Darnay, an immigrant to England from France who makes frequent trips between London and Paris. Upon their return to England, Darnay finds himself on trial for spying for France and in league with American revolutionaries. His attorney, Stryver, and Stryver's obviously intelligent, if morally corrupt and debauched, assistant, Sydney Carton, manage to get Darnay exonerated of the charges against him. Darnay, a self-exiled former French aristocrat, finds himself compelled to return to France in the wake of the French Revolution, drawing all those around him into a dangerous scene. Dickens portrays the French Revolution simplistically, but powerfully, as a case of downtrodden peasants exacting a harsh revenge against an uncaring aristocratic, even feudal, system. The Defarge's, a wine merchant and his wife, represent the interests of the lower classes, clouded by hatred after generations of misuse. Darnay, affiliated by birth with the French aristocracy, is torn between sympathy for his native country in its suffering, and his desire to be free of his past. "A Tale of Two Cities" is a novel driven by historical circumstance and plot, much like the works of Sir Walter Scott, wherein the characters themselves assert less agency, finding themselves forced to deal with the tide of epic events. Richard Maxwell's introduction to this newest Penguin edition does a good job outlining the themes of doubling and literary influence that Dickens works with. One specific influence I discerned in reading "A Tale" that Maxwell doesn't metion is Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France," which if nothing else, gives the feeling that the rampant violence of the early revolution and the later Reign of Terror has brought about an irreversible change in human nature. While Dickens remains cautiously optimistic throughout the novel that France can recover, the tone of the novel speaks to the regression of humanity into a more feral, primal state, rather than advertise any real hope for its enlightened progress. Despite the supposed dichotomy between England and France in the novel, Dickens seems to suggest throughout that there are no real differences, due to the way that human nature is consistently portrayed. With England in between two revolutions, American and French, Lucie's sensitivity early in the novel to hearing the "echoing" footsteps of unseen multitudes indicates a palpable fear that the "idyllic" or "pastoral" England he tries to portray is not exempt from the social discontent of America or France. In this light, stolid English characters like Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and Jarvis Lorry appear to almost overcompensate in their loyalty to British royalty. In a novel that deals with death, religion, mental illness, I could go on and on for a week, but I won't. One of those novels whose famous first and last lines are fixed in the minds of people who've never even read it, "A Tale of Two Cities" demands to be read and admired.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and yet somewhat tedious
Review: Here is another one I remember being very good. I lost the paperback version so I ordered this one and reread it when it arrived. I found it much more tedious than I had remembered - yet, it is still a good story.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Character Development
Review: I read this novel during a class on Victorian Literature some time ago. It turned out to be the last novel we read for the semester and I was not looking forward to it after trudging through Thomas Hardy and other intensly depressing authors. However, Dickens surprised me. I should have known, since Dickens is a brilliant author - proven by time. Anyway - "A Tale of Two Cities" is a wonderful novel. The character development is extraordinary and one can't help but feel sympathetic towards the characters. This novel will keep you involved 'til the end. It being the first Dickens' novel I read, inspired me to read several more and I would recommend each, but especially "A Tale of Two Cities." It is by far my favorite to date. Dickens is simply a master of story telling and "A Tale of Two Cities" is one of his greatest works. Again - I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an intriguing novel written by a brilliant author.
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