Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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:
Yes
Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope.
Going into the book not realising how demanding of a read this was going to be, the first two chapters required several attempts for me to get through, leaving me distraught that I'd have to abandon it for something far less trying. However, after the initial difficulties, the rest of the book was a cruise, albeit a tempestuous one.
A Tale of Two Cities serves as a crucial reference point for modern day representations of the French revolution. It paints a gruesome picture of Paris, the hub of all revolutionary activities, as men and women with bloodthirsty visages and a raging fire filling the pit of their empty bellies clawed down the more fortunate spawns of their own race.
Faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark on them.
Dickens generously uses foreshadowing as a powerful literary device and from the very beginning, events and exchanges of dialogue hint at what is to come in the near or distant future, often in a way that rendered me in a state of "inattentional blindness", a state where one fails to notice what's hidden in plain sight. Characters are not who you think them to be and things in general are not as they seem, but in retrospect, every revelation that caught me off guard was foreshadowed at an earlier point in the book. One way in which he accomplishes this is by using symbolic elements that repeat themselves throughout the course of the novel, like the echoing footsteps that Lucie Manette hears outside her house, the bevy of knitting women and the recurring theme of resurrection.
Dickens's narrative is masterfully bestrewn with metaphors and quirky humour. He is so assured of his skill that he can take the liberty to make light of a dark situation ever so often (while retaining the crux of the matter) with lines such as these:
That, they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could endure the notion of their children laying their heads upon their pillows; in short, that there never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the prisoner's head was taken off.
And yet, in contrast, there were lines that made a cold dread settle in your chest or lines that turned you introspective. The inner monologues of Sydney Carton as he sullenly treads the city at night, observing the passage of life and repenting his own were some of my favourite passages.
A Tale of Two Cities quite literally knits together the two cities in question- Paris and London. Every character is connected with another character who's connected with another character. Your future is tarnished by your past and your connections with other people. The innocent is not entirely innocent, the guilty dubiously so. In this way, it's certain that those who were in England and away from the revolution weren't truly separate from it. There was no escape from what was to happen, no way to prevent the bloodshed. The very trees that would be chopped to make the framework for the sharp female called La Guillotine were born long before the revolution took root. It was etched in the parchment of time.
The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran into evening, so much life in the city ran into death according to rule, time and tide waited for no man, the rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again, [..] all things ran their course.
And thus, all things ran their course.
Going into the book not realising how demanding of a read this was going to be, the first two chapters required several attempts for me to get through, leaving me distraught that I'd have to abandon it for something far less trying. However, after the initial difficulties, the rest of the book was a cruise, albeit a tempestuous one.
A Tale of Two Cities serves as a crucial reference point for modern day representations of the French revolution. It paints a gruesome picture of Paris, the hub of all revolutionary activities, as men and women with bloodthirsty visages and a raging fire filling the pit of their empty bellies clawed down the more fortunate spawns of their own race.
Faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark on them.
Dickens generously uses foreshadowing as a powerful literary device and from the very beginning, events and exchanges of dialogue hint at what is to come in the near or distant future, often in a way that rendered me in a state of "inattentional blindness", a state where one fails to notice what's hidden in plain sight. Characters are not who you think them to be and things in general are not as they seem, but in retrospect, every revelation that caught me off guard was foreshadowed at an earlier point in the book. One way in which he accomplishes this is by using symbolic elements that repeat themselves throughout the course of the novel, like the echoing footsteps that Lucie Manette hears outside her house, the bevy of knitting women and the recurring theme of resurrection.
Dickens's narrative is masterfully bestrewn with metaphors and quirky humour. He is so assured of his skill that he can take the liberty to make light of a dark situation ever so often (while retaining the crux of the matter) with lines such as these:
That, they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows; that, they never could endure the notion of their children laying their heads upon their pillows; in short, that there never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the prisoner's head was taken off.
And yet, in contrast, there were lines that made a cold dread settle in your chest or lines that turned you introspective. The inner monologues of Sydney Carton as he sullenly treads the city at night, observing the passage of life and repenting his own were some of my favourite passages.
A Tale of Two Cities quite literally knits together the two cities in question- Paris and London. Every character is connected with another character who's connected with another character. Your future is tarnished by your past and your connections with other people. The innocent is not entirely innocent, the guilty dubiously so. In this way, it's certain that those who were in England and away from the revolution weren't truly separate from it. There was no escape from what was to happen, no way to prevent the bloodshed. The very trees that would be chopped to make the framework for the sharp female called La Guillotine were born long before the revolution took root. It was etched in the parchment of time.
The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran into evening, so much life in the city ran into death according to rule, time and tide waited for no man, the rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again, [..] all things ran their course.
And thus, all things ran their course.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Nossa, um clássico de respeito!
A linguagem é antiga, demora a engrenar na história em si, mas dps que começa vc não quer parar de ler. Quando ouvi falar que ele era publicado como folhetins, não imagino a ansiedade dos leitores. A história é cativante, as reviravoltas são bem construídas. As questões sociais e reflexões que esse livro trás são super pertinentes ainda na atualidade, e as questões de todos os personagens, mesmos os mais infames, eu pelo menos não consegui culpá-los, pois eles tinham justificativas fortes.
Gostei bastante da forma que foi exposto a luta de classes e foi muito interessante ver a história dentro da história real.
A linguagem é antiga, demora a engrenar na história em si, mas dps que começa vc não quer parar de ler. Quando ouvi falar que ele era publicado como folhetins, não imagino a ansiedade dos leitores. A história é cativante, as reviravoltas são bem construídas. As questões sociais e reflexões que esse livro trás são super pertinentes ainda na atualidade, e as questões de todos os personagens, mesmos os mais infames, eu pelo menos não consegui culpá-los, pois eles tinham justificativas fortes.
Gostei bastante da forma que foi exposto a luta de classes e foi muito interessante ver a história dentro da história real.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If this book wasn’t know as a classic, I probably would have given up on it. The first two-thirds of the book were kind of dull, and didn’t seem all that interesting. The characters felt a bit lacking, at least in terms of depth. Once the book finally changed setting to Revolutionary France in the last third, it picked up a lot for me. Still, given its status, I was hoping for a little more from this.
By no means is it bad, but I ultimately finished the book so that I can say I’ve read A Tale of Two Cities rather than the story or characters driving me.
By no means is it bad, but I ultimately finished the book so that I can say I’ve read A Tale of Two Cities rather than the story or characters driving me.
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
sad
slow-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:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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:
N/A