Review: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Let me start off this review by admitting that this is the only Dickens work I have read, outside of "A Christmas Carol."  To be perfectly honest, the reason I have yet to delve into his works is because I had very poor expectations of his work by others that have read his well-known material and detested it.  In addition, Dickens has been voted down in my book club for over three years running.  I finally decided to just plunge into his work, and I begun with "A Tale of Two Cities" because a close friend of mine told me that I would enjoy it.  She was right.

Here's the synopsis of the book, which I'm shamelessly stealing from Wikipedia because it's just so compact an encompassing:

"A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it is among the most famous works of fiction.


The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette."

There were a few things that I was expecting from having talked to others about Dickens.  Since he grew up in a poor family and hated social inequities, I knew there was going to be some sort of struggle between classes, which their obviously was.  I have been told that a majority of his work is set in England, which seems logical given that he was born and died there.

What I did not expect, was that Dickens is a satirist.  Being critical of class structures sometimes leads itself into being a satirist, but that doesn't necessarily translate 100% of the time.  I was pleasantly surprised at how subtly humorous Dickens was.  I'm sure there were plenty of things that went over my head, but I laughed out loud a few times at some zingers which resonated with me.

I was also not expecting the novel to be such a mystery, and here I have to tip my hat to Dickens.  Not only did he write a mystery, but he used no shameless Dan Brown mystery techniques... and it doesn't come across as an English Agatha Christie type mystery.  It's obviously LITERATURE and not intended to be in the MYSTERY genre, but Dickens displayed many scenes without giving background into what was happening.  Either this is done because a writer is poor at his/her craft, or because he/she wants to surprise you with something.  The air of mystery surrounding these scenes was so refreshing... it seemed to combine my love of the genre as a child with my love of literature as an adult.  I had no idea the two could be put together so seamlessly.  Here is what I jotted down as I was reading: "Has a way with making things mysterious, but still has a literary air."

The other thing that appealed to me is that Dickens is dramatic.  I think I should capitalize the word to give it more emphasis.  Dickens = Drama!  I can see where some would be put off by this, but I loved it.  It wasn't subtle like the humour in the novel, but it was really compelling to me... quite possibly because I am a dramatic person.  My spouse can be a drama queen, so perhaps I just have an affinity towards it. 
I did find that Dickens had the tendency to go off on tangents.  When he was describing the history of Monseigneur, his house, his servants, his frivolous lifestyle, etc... basically the definition of a corrupt aristocrat, I tuned out a little.  I appreciated a little background, but not necessarily a whole chapter on it.  I could see where readers could get put-off of Dickens, but I didn't find too many occasions of this in the novel.  He had a tendency to jump around to various other characters in the story, but all jumping seemed to be properly placed in keeping with the story.

So that's my view on Dickens, based on this one experience.  Let me talk a little bit about the novel.

"A Tale of Two Cities" was rooted in real-life events, and I only found this out after searching "Bastille" on the Internet to find out exactly what Dickens had detailed the fall of the Bastille (a fortress-prison) in Paris in 1789. 

The title of the book was obviously about the different natures of both London and Paris at the time .  So the two cities were represented by peace (London) and turmoil (Paris) and chronicled the class disparity between the aristocrats and the peasants... which could be seen as two distinct cities as to themselves.  The city where the aristocrats lived, a beautiful Paris where money was not a concern and indulgence was normal to a Paris as viewed by the peasants, where people starved daily and their government leaders had abandoned them.  The dualism in the book was poignant, and Dickens' opening lines stress the power of perspective, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and then went on to say that the novel spoke of a period that "was so far like the present period".  Every society has had it's rich and it's poor, and the viewpoints of both classes can be remarkably different.

I liked the theme of man (in this case, Charles Darnay) running away from a difficult situation and ignoring his responsibilities to lead a quiet life with the woman he loved.  Was the man a coward or was he sensible?  Did he due greater harm to the people of Paris and if so, was he justified in doing harm?  Do some people have a duty in life that they must face or do we all have a duty to live the life we WANT to lead? 

Due to the way Sydney Carton ended his life, does this make him a hero?  Is it more noble to abuse yourself for years in a self-deprecating nature to eventually self-deprecate for a purpose?  Is this what heroes are?  Was Carton a hero or was he just finding the easy, noble way to peace of mind?  Hard to tell.

This work is full of questions and Dickens does not attempt to answer them.  I enjoy the fact that he left these decisions up to the reader.  I enjoyed every minute of this book, minus the one diatribe about Monseigneur.  I am a current fan of Dickens, and I plan on giving some of his other work a go.  I'm still intimidated by the length of some of the novels, so I'll probably continue with a shorter work like "Oliver Twist" or "Great Expectations."  Thoughts on this in the book blogging community?

Vocabulary Vertigo | A Tale of Two Cities

Usually I record terms that I either don't know or are a little hazy on while I'm reading, but then I forget (or become too lazy) to look them up, so while I am reading "A Tale of Two Cities", I decided (albeit late into the endeavor) to record some of the terms and actually look them up on the fly.  I'm going to try to do this periodically, but we'll see what happens.  I'll try to limit it to around 5 words, but I may get carried away.  I have decided to call it "Vocabulary Vertigo", because some of the terms are liable to make me dizzy while staring down at them. 

tocsin
–noun
1. a signal, esp. of alarm, sounded on a bell or bells.
2. a bell used to sound an alarm.

dolorous
-adjective
full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow; grievous; mournful: a dolorous melody; dolorous news.

lodestone [I was first introduced to the term through video games]
-noun
1. a variety of magnetite that possesses magnetic polarity and attracts iron.
2. a piece of this serving as a magnet.
3. something that attracts strongly.

farrier
-noun
A blacksmith

coquette
–noun
1. a woman who flirts lightheartedly with men to win their admiration and affection; flirt.

–verb (used without object)
2. to coquet.

Comments are welcome on this post.  Would you prefer context?  More terms/less terms? Suggestions/opinions?

A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens

I was feeling a little down in the dumps about the state of the world the other day, after going to see an amazing talk by Dr. David Suzuki in Toronto. Since I had already finished my book club novel for November, I was free to choose something that I hoped would raise my spirits. Christmas is on its way, so I decided that something festive would brighten my mood. I must admit there aren’t a lot of Christmas books on my shelf, but there was one that I have been dying to read for a while now: “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. The other added benefit from this, is that I have yet to read any Dickens and I have felt entirely guilty for not doing so. How can someone who runs a book club for over two years and is a lover of literature not read any Dickens?

HISTORY

So, let’s start by talking briefly on the background of the novel and what was happening in the world at the time. “In May 1843, Dickens planned to publish an inexpensive political pamphlet tentatively titled, "An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child" [Wikipedia] which was intended to report the effect of the Industrial Revolution on the children of England. This pamphlet eventually became “A Christmas Carol” and was originally published on December 19th, 1843 as “A Christmas Carol in Prose, (Being a Ghost Story of Christmas)”. The book was written and published in six weeks.

Dickens was well known as being an advocate for the poor, which was largely based on his upbringing. In 1924, his father John was arrested for financial (debt) problems and at twelve years old, Charles was forced into working in a shoe polish factory where I would assume he worked in sub-par conditions. Dickens most well known work, “Oliver Twist”, was about a boy that escaped a workhouse and met a bunch of pickpockets in London.

MOVIES

I’m just going to start by saying that the book’s general plot lines follow what you have seen in most of the movies. The best “A Christmas Carol” is the 1951 black and white film Alastair Sim. Of course, for me, one cannot forget to mention my favourite as a child... “Mickey’s Christmas Carol.” Another, immensely popular version [and my girlfriend’s favourite] is “A Muppet Christmas Carol.” This year, another version of the film will come out in an animated version with Jim Carrey playing the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, which so far has received mixed reviews.

DIFFERENCES FROM THE MOVIES

• Scrooge believed he saw Marley due to undigested or undercooked food.
• Marley unwraps his bandage around his head and his jaw drops to the floor.
• After Marley left, Scrooge looks out the window to see many ghosts outside. 46
• Spirit of the Past's image fluctuates... from one leg to twenty legs [and other fluctuations] 55
• Dickens mentions Ali Baba, Valentine, Orson, Robin Crusoe, etc 61-62
• Scrooge didn't dance with a woman at Fozziwigs [in many movies]
• Scrooge didn't marry his lady friend, because she had no dowry
• The Ghost of Christmas Present had 1800 brothers 89
• The Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkled incense from his torch on their food to make people happy 95
• The concept of Sunday's being a day of rest is explored 96
• Scrooge's laundry is not boiled at the Cratchit house, but potatoes in the kettle.  Te Cratchits had lots of food, but I believe potatoes were a sign of being poor in England at the time.
• I found it interesting that the concept of "surplus population" was explored 106
• "Miners" were the very poor [not the Cratchits], and their situation is discussed 111
• "It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour." 114
• There is a game played with Scrooge's nephew called the "Yes and No" game.  The answer is "Scrooge" - this is supposed to be a jovial game, but it comes across as mean-spirited, in my opinion.
• The spirits actually age - The Ghost of Christmas Present dies at midnight.
• The Ghost of Christmas Present throws Scrooge's words back at him about why he will not give arms for the poor.  Scrooge's response then was about prisons and workhouses.
• Men talk about Scrooge's death [in the future], , but not at a grave... the grave visitation comes later. 
• People that owe Scrooge money are the ones rejoicing at his death.
• Scrooge is shown his own corpse [in a room], before they visit the grave site.

That's what I have seemed to log as differences or things that caught my eye.  I'd recommend reading the book around the holidays... still a delightful story that gets you in the spirit of Christmas.