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A review by charlottechamberswriter
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
5.0
A Tale of Two Cities is the first Dickens work I've actually read. I've seen Masterpiece Theatre's Bleak House and Great Expectations (both of which I highly recommend). I've seen the Christmas Carol on stage and in film, in various iterations. However, before I actually read Dickens, I would have said that I was a fan based on those viewings. Well I certainly still am.
I was nervous going in, though. My boyfriend began Bleak House and gave up around page 100. This is quite a scandal if you know him. He had never, ever before given up on a book before, and he hasn't since. I've seen him trudge through books that are very dense and he finds very boring. He described Dickens' style as just a little too dense, and often tough to follow sentence-by-sentence.
I can't say I disagree. There were parts of this book that nearly bored me to tears. But Dickens does what it seems only Dickens could do - the last 150 pages of this book were so good, exciting, heart-wrenching, and full of beautifully-told human drama that I completely forgot how bored I was before. I would read it over and over again, if only to relive that experience where everything shifts and suddenly one finds themselves so invested in the story they cannot stop. We all know Dickens pulls at heart-strings, that he was passionate about social justice and caring for those stuck in their tragic circumstances, and that passion combined with what seems to be a super-human knack for writing can lead to nothing but total reverance from his readers. WORTH. IT.
I was nervous going in, though. My boyfriend began Bleak House and gave up around page 100. This is quite a scandal if you know him. He had never, ever before given up on a book before, and he hasn't since. I've seen him trudge through books that are very dense and he finds very boring. He described Dickens' style as just a little too dense, and often tough to follow sentence-by-sentence.
I can't say I disagree. There were parts of this book that nearly bored me to tears. But Dickens does what it seems only Dickens could do - the last 150 pages of this book were so good, exciting, heart-wrenching, and full of beautifully-told human drama that I completely forgot how bored I was before. I would read it over and over again, if only to relive that experience where everything shifts and suddenly one finds themselves so invested in the story they cannot stop. We all know Dickens pulls at heart-strings, that he was passionate about social justice and caring for those stuck in their tragic circumstances, and that passion combined with what seems to be a super-human knack for writing can lead to nothing but total reverance from his readers. WORTH. IT.