“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”,

This is arguably the most famous opening line ever written. It has since become something of an iconic statement and somewhat of a cliché.

First published in weekly installments in Dickens' literary periodical All the Year Round in 1859, A Tale of Two Cities, remains one of the most popular novels of all time and also one of the most frequently quoted.

The book is divided in to three parts, Book the First: Recalled to Life, Book the Second: The Golden Thread and Book the Third: The Track of a Storm.

Set before and during the turbulent times of the French revolution, A Tale of Two Cities follows the lives of several characters and the two great cities of London and Paris that are inexorably a part of these lives. It is also a story of love and sacrifice.

A Tale of Two Cities gives a vivid portrayal of the harrowing lives of the French peasantry and the cruelty of the French aristocracy. But after the revolution it is the oppressed who become the oppressors and show equal cruelty to their former exploiters. The book also portrays the social injustices that exited in England of that time as a kind of a parallel to France.

All of Dickens’ novels feature so many characters that it is hard to discuss each and every one of them. A Tale of Two Cities is no exception. The main protagonists Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette are supposed to be good and are good to the point of being sickeningly sugary. Dickens’ love for golden curls and blue eyes raises its ugly head once more in the form of the beautiful Lucie Manette. The fact that she’s beautiful is pointed out to us many times.

Dr. Alexandre Manette with his difficult past is an interesting character. His mental affliction that comes from his past hardships and his subsequent relapses in to it is interesting to read. But his swift recovery simply through his daughter’s goodness seems a little unbelievable. Mr. Lorry, though an important character, never becomes fully developed and is dull.

Ernest Defarge is another dull character. But his wife Therese Defarge, an unforgiving and bitter woman, is really chilling. Her thirst for vengeance and the cool and methodical way she sets out to destroy everyone is disturbing to say the least.

Miss Pross I must say managed to surprise me. She seemed like one of those devoted old guard types but her final act manages to distinguish her from the rest. Mr. Stryver is an annoying character and he is supposed to be just that, annoying.

But for me one of the most memorable characters in A Tale of Two Cities and indeed in all the books that I’ve ever read remains-Sydney Carton. He is bright and intelligent and yet is a deeply unhappy man. He’s an alcoholic and a pessimist. He’s supposed to be a damaged person, he himself believes he is beyond redemption. But we still see that underneath it all he is good man and is capable of great deeds.

Even after so many re-reads, every time I reach the third part of the book ( Book the Third: The Track of a Storm), when the shadows that have been gathering around the leads become more apparent, I start to feel anxious.

The writing is very good. One of Dickens’ best according to me. But it is a lot less humorous than many of Dickens’ other books. That’s because the book deals with such sad and tragic circumstances it is nearly impossible to be funny about it.

A Tale of Two Cities remains a sentimental favorite. Sure as I’ve grown older the flaws in the narrative and the characterization have become more apparent. But pardon me for being stubbornly faithful to it when I say that I don’t care about the flaws at all!

As I said at the beginning of my review A Tale of Two Cities has arguably the most famous opening lines ever written but for me the closing lines of the book which come from the character of Sydney Carton hold a certain poignancy,

“ 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. ”

Truly touching and heart warming, every time. ( )

This was a great read! Dickens at his best! ( )

Oh! Madame Defarge ( )

A Tale of Two Cities tells the tale of the French Revolution of 1978, and the times leading up to the Revolution, as it affects multiple characters from multiple socioeconomic backgrounds. The novel paints a vivid picture of the poorest of French citizens and the way in which their lives contrast with the overly glorified, gluttonous lives of the rich to emphasize the tension before the revolution. At the same time, the author incorporates aspects of the characters personal lives which creates a more realistic picture of the Revolution.
There are two major protagonists in Dicken’s novel: Charles Darnay, the non-clichéd aristocrat who resides in England, and Sydney Carton, the stubborn attorney. Although I found both of these characters to be interesting, I had a hard time understanding the motives of their actions. In my opinion, I thought that the character development was slightly weak and because of this, I was not able to understand the two characters to the extent that I would have liked. I did, however, enjoy the way Dickens set Carton’s character as a foil for the character of Darnay. The evil, somewhat malicious personality of Carton contrasts with the more agreeable personality of Darnay, even though the two are both in love with the character of Lucie.
The novel is set in third person limited point of view, which allows readers to view the heavy contrast between the different social classes. If Dickens had chosen to write in a first person point of view, readers would only have viewed the story from an extremely narrow window and would not have been able to understand the disparity between the rich and the poor, which was a major theme throughout the novel. This third person limited point of view used also allowed readers to read about very minute characters, characters of no vital importance to the story, which ultimately, helped reinforce the tension between the rich and poor. One of my favorite scenes in the entire novel follows a man named Marquis Evrémonde, a cruel member of the aristocracy. As the Marquis is riding down the countryside, his carriage runs over and murders a young boy of a lower class family. The marquis shows no sympathy for the boy he kills and continues on his way. Later, Marquis Evrémonde is punished for his action, in a very surprising way (I won’t give too much away). Although Marquis Evrémonde’s character never again appears in the novel, it was interesting to read about this man and his murderous actions and deserved punishments.
I was very impressed with the author’s use of foreshadowing in A Tale of Two Cities as well. There were many times in the novel that indicated similar events to come. For example, my favorite scene involving Marquis Evrémonde foreshadows an uprising between the upper and lower classes and the death of the aristocracy. In addition to Dicken’s use of foreshadowing, there was also quite a lot of symbolism in the novel. Madame Defarge, a wine shop owner in France, spends her days knitting names into a woven piece of fabric. These names represent the people who are going to die due to the French Revolution. The quickness that Defarge knits these names into the fabric represents the informalities and immense numbers of deaths due to the revolution.
Overall, I would recommend A Tale of Two Cities to anyone with a desire to read a classic, yet very thought provoking novel. Dicken’s use of foreshadowing and symbolism keeps the reader thinking, and the somewhat disturbing topic of the French Revolution keeps the reader intrigued. ( )

May Witwit, an Iraqi university lecturer who left the country when life got too dangerous, has chosen to discuss Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities ", on FiveBooks (http://five-books.com) as one of the top five on her subject - Living in Iraq during the invasion, saying that:

“…I started a paper about the historical reality in this book. And as I studied it more deeply I got depressed because the things that were happening were similar to Iraq. How the mob could be turned against people by devious minds. They just killed people without even knowing them.…”

The full interview is available here: http://thebrowser.com/books/interview... ( )