Book info

• Title A Tale of Two Cities
• Author Charles Dickens
• Year 1859
• Genre Classic

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal.

Thoughts

I’ve always been put off from reading this because of the idea of so much political talk in it, but considering some of the other classic works I have succeeded in reading through my Life List challenge, I thought I could give it a go. It’s true that I probably missed a lot of the more political aspect, the comparisons between France and England, and all that.

But I enjoyed the story, a tale of spies, of wrongful imprisonment, of the ultimate sacrifice. I don’t know whether it’s because I knew the final words, or if it really was quite obvious, but as soon as it was mentioned that there were two characters that looked very alike, it felt clear where it was all going to end.

But that didn’t make it any less touching when the story finally wound its way to a conclusion. Sad, moving and a little bit awe-inspiring as well. A good read, overall, but tricky for me in places.

Rating: 3 / 5