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Summary: The best book that I have ever read.
Review: This book is set in a time that seems far away and unlike the times that we live in. However, the issues that drive the story are issues that pervade in today's society. Selflessness, morality, social reform, revolution...citizens across the globe deal with these issues now. Not only that, Dickens' book is enjoyable and accessible. I highly recommend it!
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Summary: ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS OF ALL TIME!!
Review: I am a ninth grader and read this book for my summer reading. I LOVED it!! It was very sweet and really awsome. It gave a real picture of the French Revolution and the terribleness of that period. I loved how everything fell together and fit. IT WAS GREAT!!
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Summary: A truly great book. One of my all-time favorites.
Review: I first read this book over fifteen years ago and it says something about the potency of the story that I (who am usually bad at remembering names) can still rattle off the characters' names -- Sidney Carton, Doctor and Lucy Mannette, Charles Darnay, Madame DeFarge ... I began reading the book sitting outside on a hot summer day, but was soon actually feeling cold as I was drawn into the freezing rain and mud of the openning scene on the Dover Mail coach. This book has it all: romance and tragedy, mystery and history, revolutionary atrocities and courtroom drama, not to mention both openning and closing lines which are unforgettable and famous (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...). It's a book that truly transports you to another time, one of history's most terrible and frightening, as well as one of its most idealistic and noble. A word to all those kids who had to read it for school and gave it bad reviews: there is something about having to ! read a book for school that makes you hate it. Don't let that throw you. Read it again ten years from now, after you've had a chance to experience life (both the good and bad stuff) a bit more, after you've learned a bit more history so you can understand all the book's allusions, and when you (and this time not your teacher) are really in the mood to read, and you'll see why this book is considered one of the truly great classics.
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Summary: One of the best novels I have ever read
Review: This book went right to the heart, my heart. The ending had such an effect on me I cannot describe. I unfortunately, identified with Sydney Carton and the sad tragic life he lived. In fact though, it was inspiring. If someone reading this has not read the book I would not want to give away the ending. Beyond that it is an historical novel of immense foresight. We can look back on it when reflecting on modern political crimes on humanity and see that it can and still does happen. But as simply a literary novel, nothing compares as far as I recall in my readings.
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Summary: IT WAS SO BORING I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE FROM BORDOM
Review: Some people may like it some don't, I am one who does not like it. I had to read the book my freshman year in high school. Now that I've graduated and look back on all the books that I have read it was one of the most boring books on the face of this earth!! Teachers and schoolboards must use this book as a touture method in school. Another boring book is Wuthering Heights, I won't even discuss that one.
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Summary: A tragedy that is a very GREAT (underline GREAT) book
Review: Dickens' Classic "A Tale of Two Cities" Is a wonderful book if you like sad books. I read it and it was sad, beautiful, and GREAT! I assure you, this is no joke! It is a great book! When you read it, I assure you'll love it!
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Summary: An old tear-jerker reread reveals a subtle portraiture
Review: Dickensian Portraiture in the Persons of Jarvis Lorry and Madame Defarge Like so many Americans, I read A Tale of Two Cities in the tenth grade and reacted, typically for a fourteen-year-old, with a mixture of boredom and a sense of how "old" it all seemed. Now, many years later, I pick up this masterpiece of subtle portraiture and marvel at Dickens' ability to take two diametrically opposed characters, have them represent the two cities of the title, London and Paris respectively, and yet make them more than mouthpieces for a melodrama set before and during the French revolution. Lorry is "good" incarnate; it is he who delivers a key character from the Bastille, reunites him with his daughter, and thus allows his story to foreshadow and develop the larger historical context into which it fits. It is Jarvis Lorry who introduces us to the story and its characters; but more than that, he introduces himself and his beneficence as the perfect counterpoint to the novels chief antagonist, Madame Defarge. Her name and her infamous knitting have become part of our language and lore: she epitomizes a just intent gone terribly, maliciously wrong. And for me, the second-time reader of this often neglected gem of a nineteenth-century British novel, the book's strength lies in this juxtaposition and contrast of two character portraits which reflect not only the disparities of the revolution and how revolutionary fervor can be the impetus for injustice at the very moment it seeks to bring a modicum of justice to those who have never known it, but also the disparities of human nature, and how two different histories, one English, one French, mold those two natures into a composite of all that is right and all that is wrong in humankind's desire to change society for the better. The larger story is important and must be known; the more intimate one that encompasses the art of Dickensian portraiture sticks in the mind long after the "big picture" has faded somewhat from view. This! novel is one we should all reread along with Crime and Punishment, Nausea, and Camus' L'Etranger.
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Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: I recently read this book for my tenth grade English class, and was totally blown away. This is a great story, set against a very interesting period in history, the French Revolution. I admit the beginning is a little bit slow and confusing, but after reading about halfway through, I could not put this book down. The storyline is amazing, and I was very impressed by the way all the characters were linked together. The story also reminded me of my favorite movie, Casablanca. I hope that other people enjoy this book as much as I did. I reccommend it to everyone.
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Summary: Dated in its original syntax, see the movie first.
Review: As happens with many historically specific novels, one needs to be familiar with the timeframe and setting of the novel.Today, seeing a film of the novel or the events that surround a historical novel will greatly enhance one's experience in reading the full novel later on. One of Dickens' top novels.
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Summary: Boring Beginning, Great Ending
Review: I recently read this book for my high school English class. I had heard a lot of different opinions on the book, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The beginning was very slow, and you find yourself wondering what everything has to do with anything, but once you get half way the pieces start to fall together to make a great ending. It is definitely not as good if you do not understand it. Cliff Notes help a lot. It is also nice if you know a little of the French language and something about French Revolution history. I would recommend the book though. The movie is pretty boring because you do not get the insight on everyone's thoughts. Don't see the movie, especially after you have read the book.
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