A rollercoaster of deception, self-sacrifice, courage, and redemption.
A photograph of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – by Charles Dickens.
‘’Liberté, égalité, fraternité’’
Each month, I try to read at least one classic in order to broaden the scopes of my reading and enrich my literary knowledge and the pick for July was none less than ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ written by the renowned Charles Dickens. Having studied Dickens at school, I went into the novel believing I was well accustomed and ready for the style of his writing – famous last words. Admittedly, I have only ever read one other of his works (A Christmas Carol) but I found it much more difficult to get along with at the start than I ever had done before. Fortunately, within 3-4 chapters, it became much easier and my reading of it started to flow better. However, in the meantime I used some excellent chapter summaries online to make sure I didn’t misinterpret or completely miss part of the plot. I will leave a link to these at the end of the article.
A Tale Of Two Cities, begins with Miss Lucie Manette and Mr Jarvis Lorry travelling to France in the hope that they have located her estranged Father, Doctor Manette, who has been held captive in the Bastille for eighteen years. The trip is successful, and the Doctor is released and able to reunite with his daughter. Years later, we read about the trial of Charles Darnay who is eventually found innocent and requests Lucie’s hand in marriage and they appear to live a quaint life in London. However, when the revolutionaries discover that Darnay is the descendant of a notoriously corrupt Aristocrat he is once again imprisoned when he returns to France and so begins the literary rollercoaster of deception, courage, self-sacrifice, and redemption.
The depth of Dicken’s character development is incredible and so it was very easy to form a connection to the main protagonists (especially Lucie for me). Despite the fact it was written over 160 years ago in 1859, Dickens writing is so descriptive and emotive that you can really start to feel and understand the predicament of each of the characters as well as being educated on the way life in France would have been during the French Revolution. This truly does make it a timeless classic.
Before reading the book, I was told that the very last line was incredibly and powerful and would round off the whole of my reading experience – I couldn’t agree more. The impact of those last few words truly makes the whole book and even the struggle at the beginning worth the read. I won’t say any more for fear of giving out spoilers (everyone hates those) but I will say that I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who considers themselves a true literary fanatic.
The SparkNotes chapter summaries I mentioned at the beginning of this review can be found here: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/a-tale-of-two-cities/#Summary