amandareadssomuch 's review for:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

3.5

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While I found the first two-thirds of this book less than intriguing, the final section was exciting and interesting. Dickens' habit of writing as activism sometimes leaves me cold as a reader. Thankfully, I read along with the audiobook and also listened to the fabulous discussion held by the hosts of the Close Reads Podcast. I can see the value of this novel in literary history and enjoyed the discussions, even if Dickens still is not one of my favorite authors. The famous first and last lines of this book, I now finally have context for. (And Sydney Carton became my favorite character in the book by the end.) One question I'm still mulling over is whether knowing Dickens' history was inaccurate takes away from the novel. And did he know his sources were bad?