A tale of two cities

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Charles Dickens: A tale of two cities (2005, ICON Classics)

[electronic resource] /

English language

Published Aug. 6, 2005 by ICON Classics.

ISBN:
978-1-4237-7599-7
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OCLC Number:
69995412

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3 stars (1 review)

The storming of the Bastille...the death carts with their doomed human cargo...the swift drop of the guillotine blade - this is the French Revolution that Charles Dickens vividly captures in his famous work, A Tale of Two Cities. With dramatic eloquence, he brings to life a time of terror and treason, a starving people rising in frenzy and hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent regime. With insight and compassion, he casts his novel of unforgettable scenes with unforgettable characters: the sinister Madame Defarge, knitting her patterns of death; the gentle Lucie Manette, unswerving in her devotion to her broken father ; the heroic Sydney Carton, who gives his life for the love of a girl who would never be his.

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107 editions

A bizarre mix

3 stars

I read A Christmas Carol a while before Christmas last year - my first Dickens actually from the book rather than the TV! I thought it might be fun to make this author another of my Christmas traditions so chose the not-at-all seasonal A Tale Of Two Cities for this year. It turns out that I already knew the first and last sentences because they have become famous quotes: 'It was the best of times and the worst of times' and 'it is a far far better thing that I do than I have ever done'.

For me this novel was a bizarre mix of some of the best descriptive writing I have read, interspersed with some of the most oversentimental claptrap and unrealistic dialogue. If Dickens was a modern indie author, reviews would surely be scathing! The timeline jumps at the beginning felt disjointed, but the story does eventually …

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