Reviews

A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

4.0

“No man ever really loved a woman, lost her, and knew her with a blameless though an unchanged mind when she was a wife and a mother, but her children had a strange sympathy with him—an instinctive delicacy of pity for him. What fine hidden sensibilities are touched in such a case, no echoes tell; but it is so, and it was so here. Carton was the first stranger to whom little Lucie held out her chubby arms, and he kept his place with her as she grew. The little boy had spoken of him, almost at the last. "Poor Carton! Kiss him for me!"

French Revolution must have been too big a thing for Dickens to miss given his protests against class discrimination and constant effort to be the voice of conscience for English rich. In fact, he actually managed to portray the Paris of time well enough, IMO, despite his caricature-like characters and the boring tone he often took.

And all that is good but the truth is three of four stars here belong to Sydney Carton. Charles is a boring Mr. Goody Two Shoes; Lucie and her father are no better – too perfect to be likable. And yet Dickens prefers to give them footage instead of one of the most memorable characters he would make. Sydney would be gone for several chapters. Often I was flipping through pages to see how long I have to continue reading before having him back.

The story is dull and too melodramatic – Charles managed to be accused of things he didn’t do three times (or was it four times?) and be saved each time – twice by Sydney. Also twice would he leave France under assumed identities. Sydney is in Paris to save Charles who had gone there to defend someone else.

Sydney is the only redeeming thing about the novel.

“O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!”

He actually said the best monologue that I ever have heard about love:

“I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father, and of this homemade such a home by you, has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent forever. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.”

And it is not only those big dialogues but the smallest of his acts that have nothing to do with his love. I loved everything Dickens had to say about him:

“At one of the theatre doors, there was a little girl with a mother, looking for a way across the street through the mud. He carried the child over, and before the timid arm was loosed from his neck asked her for a kiss.”

Florentino, Myshkin, Fredrick, Fredo and now Sydney – I kind of like these losers. I loved everything Dickens had to say about him even when I didn’t know the ending. He suffers from an inferiority complex probably due to the human tendency of measuring the worth of a life in terms of money. I don’t know why shouldn’t he try to move ahead in life, he is definitely street smart.

I didn't like the ending which was ruined by Sydney's foolishness. Here is what a more reasonable man would have done – he would have let Charles die; then leave Paris with Lucie. And when she is emotionally vulnerable and busy fainting over her husband’s death; he could have proposed her. But no, he was too short-sighted for all this. Some people just can’t get this right.


Three Cigarettes and a Song

A tribute to Charles Dickens and Damien Rice

As usual, she had her beautiful smile on when she opened the door and she greeted him with her daily question, addressing him, as she always did, with his last name "How you are doing today, Carton?" He greeted her back - never ever answering the question, asked her after her husband, and went to meet her children. The children were waiting for him to arrive as he was their playmate and played the game with the same excitement as they did - only losing deliberately to his younger rivals. "You will never learn Carton" the young girl would say with a shake of the head and using his last name much like her mother. "You just wait and watch, I will surely beat you two tomorrow." He would say pretending to take the challenge.

Soon they all took their dinner and then it was time to put the children in their bed. As per ritual, he told them a bedtime story - a new one every day as their parents would watch and once the children were asleep, he would bow to the parents to take their leave. Today something of a smile in her eyes as he took their leave, brought the grief back in the form of that long familiar heaviness in his throat. He could barely suppress this sudden urge to weep only as long as he was in their sight - but as soon as Lucy closed the door behind him, he broke down, fell to his knees, and started crying. Lucy and her husband who happened to be standing by the window of their room watching him leave as they sometimes did, noticed him losing himself like that, and Lucy called for him to come back. He was shocked to hear her voice and realizing she had seen like that. Without turning back he replied that he was alright. But she pleaded in that soft voice of hers which make one submit all one's life to her wishes. And her husband had already run down and opened the door.

He knew what will happen next. His love for her was no secret in the family and even the kids knew it. And they all knew how he preferred nursing his grief in solitude and only came there when he could smile for them. Yet sometimes his heart would find its way to scream when he hadn't yet managed to get himself out of eyeshot and in such cases she won't let him leave until his usual... Not exactly cheerful, but nevertheless the smiling look that normally adorned his face. And through experiments, she had discovered the surest way to bring it back.

Though he was apologetic for being such a nuisance, he knew he had to go through the usual ceremony now that Lucy knew how she was feeling. Quite often in these times, he would wish to ask her about himself - who am I? Who am I to you? as if his whole existence was defined by the position she gave him in his world. But showing great self-control, he won't ask that question, in fact, often didn't say a lot in such times, knowing all he would have said in those times would be reproaches for a woman he should be and was ever so grateful to - for the dream.

Without being asked, he took the seat by the fireplace and took the usual three cigarettes (for some reason, they always had to be three) offered by the husband on Lucy's suggestion who herself went to the piano and started playing and singing the song. It was always the same song. And he would listen to it, watching the fire as it seemed to carry a secret communication with him and smoking his grief away to the charms of her beautiful voice. And it always worked, she offered very little as consolation that he must have instead of her - three cigarettes and a song, but it was enough, always enough. By the time he put off the last cigarette and took his leave assuring them he felt better now, his face was illuminated with that same old tired smile.

andotherworlds's review against another edition

4.0

4 // read for school

brief notes:
- Dickens' character work yet again has proven to be so lively and real
- This really meant quite a bit to me given its ties to "The Infernal Devices"; drawing connections to Will and Carton truly gave my understanding of my personal favorite literary character more depth
- Book 3 was by far the best volume
- THE LAST LINE MADE ME WANT TO CRY AHH CARTON

ell_n's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

skazhavets's review against another edition

4.0

Quite a long book with intense plot and, as always in Dickens book, alive characters.

Events are happening around times of French Revolution, showing how scary those times were, how people lost their humanity outraged by desire of revenge. At a times, some characters are being very disturbing - rare intensity of negative character depiction in Dickens novels.

Some changes come at a very costly price. Some people are designed for making a change, but not made for living in the world after the change happens. The one who goes on war to fight for the justice, does not necessarily want any piece.

daisy_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense

4.5

norasteinkopf's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

delgremmyaward's review against another edition

3.0

2.5

elreyturco's review against another edition

5.0

A compelling story, although told by an author that shares its liberal world vision with those whom he criticizes. It isn't hard to realize that, albeit he concedes that the French Revolution was violent and perpetrated by immoral and treacherous people, he also extolls the mob for displacing the old "high and mighty" as justifiable as any other form of political action.

Despite all these ethical issues, the book hitherto keeps the status of a "classic" that must be read and enjoyed by every reader.

musicdeepdive's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.75

Obviously the better of Dickens' two historical novels, a heavy and emotional read where any moments of levity are mere grimaces amidst a torrid social climate. One of his more economical novels pacing-wise as well, which prevents the work from getting caught up in extraneous plot detours and allows us to constantly feel that immediate excitement + terror of Revolution-era France and the lives of those involved in it. Arguably the best ending to any Dickens novel, too.

laureenreads's review against another edition

4.0

Reading Dickens is, at the best (and worst) of times, difficult. It's a worthwhile endeavor, but man, it can be hard to get through.