A Tale of Two Cities Kindle Edition

The style of writing and the language are not of this time (or country) so it took me a little bit to get into the rythmn. After a while it reads just like any modern story with no rereading necessary. I haven't read a classic in ages, but I loved A Tale of Two Cities. It is actually frightening how brutal human beings can be. The story unfolds with amazing clarity for the absolute madness that takes place in the novel. It is also eerily relevant to our times, and actually to all times throughout history when the wealthy got rich off the backs of the poor. This historical novel makes abundantly clear: You can only exploit people for so long, and eventually angry, scared, HUNGRY, and impoverished people will rise up; then there will be lives lost on both sides. Oppression and laws that favor only the wealthy will never be a long term solution for any style of government that works . This book is more like an ALARM for future generations than it is a "cautionary tale". I am so glad I read it, because it verbalized everything I already thought about the consequences of disregarding the fundamental rights and most basic needs of other human beings. Yikes! History has some scary scary lessons. French aristocracy paid a huge price for reducing the common man to desperation. The problem is when payback comes, it turns those that destroy into monsters themselves, no better than those who they were hellbent on destroying. The madness described by Charles Dickens is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic and violent, but so very eloquently told. Its a history lesson brought to life, full of color (the color of blood) and it makes you look at what man is capable of... It's not pretty. History will repeat itself again and again apparently.

My primary goal when I'm teaching A Tale of Two Cities to my sophomores is to make them realize that Charles Dickens didn't write creaky, dusty long novels that teachers embraced as a twisted rite of passage for teenagers. Instead, I want them them to understand why Dickens was one of the most popular writers in England and America during his time. I want them to see the book as the suspenseful, comedic, and sentimental piece of entertainment that it is. Because, while A Tale of Two Cities is masterfully written with sly humor, densely meaningful descriptions, a cast of quirky characters only Dickens could create, an endless series of telling binaries and foils, and relevant social commentary about the French Revolution as well as Dickens' time, it is also simply a damn good story. By a damn good storyteller.I have a difficult time writing reviews about books that I adore because, when I'm not reading them, I hug them too closely to be very critical. (BTW - I frequently hug A Tale of Two Cities in front of my students... and write Charles Dickens' name with hearts around it... They think I'm crazy, but it intrigues some of them just enough to make them doubt the derisive comments of upperclassmen.) I reluctantly admit that Dickens does oversimplify the causes of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror; however, in doing so, he successfully captures the spirit of a tumultuous period and helps readers sympathize with characters on every side of the developing conflict. I also think that the characters of Roger Cly and John Barsad get a bit messy and may have worked better as a single character. Perhaps the confusion is a result of serialization restructuring. But, really, I read A Tale of Two Cities like a costumed Lord of the Rings fan at a movie premier. I cheer when my favorite characters enter scenes and I knowingly laugh when Dickens cleverly foreshadows future events.Though I don't think that A Tale of Two Cities is Dickens' best novel--that title I would reserve for either Bleak House or David Copperfield--I do agree with Dickens, who claims that it was his best story. It is artfully written. Dickens introduces a cast of characters, sprawled across two nations and spanning varied social classes and political affiliations, and then effortlessly weaves their stories and secrets together in a masterful way. The Modernist movement painstakingly forced literature to reflect the ambiguities and uncertainties of the real world and that's great, but sometimes it is a real joy to read a story that ends with such magnificent closure. All mysteries are solved and everything makes sense. It is beautiful.(I have to admit that I was overjoyed when a group of my fifth period girls persistently voiced their disdain for Dickens' angel in the house Lucie and backed Madame Defarge. I think they may have created a Madame Defarge myspace, actually. Oh how the times have changed.)"Ms. R--, you got me." "What?" "At the beginning of this book, you said you would get some of us. And that we would love it. You got me." I didn't get you G--. Charles Dickens did. I just introduced you.Quote:"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other."

A Tale of Two Cities takes you through so many experiences of thought, emotion, and sympathy, that is ever vividly and eloquently portrayed by the amazing Charles Dickens. This was the book that made me fall in love with his work, so much so that I can never put down one of his novels until it is completed. Now having read it again for the second time, I find that it even knowing the plot and the ending, still it refreshes all of the feelings that were created during my first time reading it, as if they were new.This book beautifully and melancholically describes the plight of several elegant and colorful characters, all interwoven by chance or intention, in a time of great challenge and despair, where the meek become strong, the indifferent find purpose, the calm find excitement, all to uphold the emotions that through all of the trials of life still find purchase in our hearts and souls, the emotions of hope and love. I recommend this book to every person who reads or doesn’t read; it will educate you in the tenacity of the human spirit; it will touch you, it will inspire you, it will make you grateful for all that you have, and make you believe again in the goodness of men.

It's 10th grade and my English class is assigned to read one of a small handful of the 'classics'. I chose A Tale of Two Cities for no apparent reason whatsoever. I had been a reader all my life up to that point but this was my first classic book and the first book since Black Beauty that made me feel something. I thought about this story almost every minute that I didn't have my nose in it and I was truly sad when I had finished it. I loved it but I wasn't really into Beverly Hills 90210 so no shocker there.The drama, heartbreak, social issues, political unrest, romance and general unease of the whole story had me hooked from the first line. I'll never actually recover from this book.

I had heard the words for the beginning of this book. ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’ etc. I had also heard the famous last words too. ‘It is a far better thing I do now…” etc. I did not know anything else about the story except it was written by Charles Dickens and the two cities were London and Paris. Also that it was against the backdrop of the French Revolution.I downloaded this on Kindle because it was a freebie and I had often wondered about the story. I accept without question that Charles Dickens is the master of characterisation. The books of his that I have read have always been stories of wonderful and colourful characters. This story was no exception. It was dynamic and gripping. I knew the character that would say the famous last lines straight away. As soon as the person began to paint his profile for the reader I knew. Everything about this story was wonderful. People of all social persuasions come together. The rogues were splendid too. One could understand their dissatisfaction and how their ways had been tempered.Everything built to a dynamic climax as the Reign of Terror is engulfing France. The guillotine is working overtime as the French Revolution is enforcing the genocide of the entire nation’s aristocracy. I can’t recommend the book highly enough. I have not read something that gave me an adrenalin rush like this for a long time. Brilliant!

The novel's events begin in Paris, roughly fourteen years prior to the French Revolution. Dr. Alexandre Manette has been released from the Bastille after having been unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years for trying to bring two members of the noble St. Evrémonde family to trial for their crimes. His daughter, Lucie, whom he has not seen since she was a small child, has traveled to Paris from London with Jarvis Lorry, a family friend, to bring him home. Lucie and Lorry arrive in Paris at the wineshop of Monsieur and Madame Defarge, who are both active in the movement to incite a peasant revolution. Dr. Manette, now old, feeble, and too mentally impaired to recognize his daughter, has been staying in a room above the shop, where he works at a shoemaker's bench in the belief that he is a cobbler.Just over 400 pages long and supported by a motley cast of characters –a puppet lawyer,  a banker with a heart of gold, and more than one gravedigger – A Tale of Two Cities moves at a pace that modern readers of John Grisham or Michael Crichton would appreciate. It has the emotional appeal of a John Irving novel, plot twists to rival Jeffery Deaver and enough violence, suspense, ghosts and good humor to sate any of Stephen King’s constant readers.A Tale of Two Cities byCharles Dickens  is a book full of quotes. It is the book, in which the lines must be quoted and not para-phrased. I remember first picking up this book when I was fifteen but never finished. Until last year, when I finished the book. Charles Dickens has been a very important personality in my life. I got to know him when i was thirteen when I remember reading Oliver Twist which had an impact over me at that time.

For research, I needed to check out court procedure around 1800. Directed to Chapter Two of this classic and not having a copy on my shelves, I down-loaded this free kindle version. It gave me the background for what I needed but I wouldn't recommend this edition for a good read. The text is broken up in a very irritating way. As a classic I suppose it would merit 4 or 5 stars but a version with the Eiffel Tower on the cover hasn't been thought through. At the time of the French Revolution, Gustave Eiffel wasn't even a twinkle in his daddy's eye. I'd recommend the novel but worth paying something for a better edition.

Spoilers:It ends with THAT famous quotation.I'm a huge Dickens/classic literature fan, and I couldn't believe this had no typical, half-hour long, Dickensian epilogue. Objectively, though, this may be the best of his novels I've read so far (I've read 10 or so); there's the usual character building backstory/backstories, combined with some plot elements of mystery/suspense, but even more so than usual, this (aptly named) novel gives an insightful glance into the mindsets of the time periods discussed. The more Dickens I read, the more impressed I am with his insight into psychology (my own undergraduate degree is in that subject, and really, I think Dickens understands human motivation better than some people alive now).Still miffed about my lack of genuine epilogue. Yes, yes, I know it's all there in SC's mental soliloquy, but can we take that as fact? I mistrust it.

A superb story full of humour and horror as Dickens relates a domestic love story embedded in the terror of the French revolution. He pulls no punches in describing the brutal conditions in France that contributed to the revolution and the atrocities that followed, but also lightens the load with his typical gentle humour in describing the characters and setting scenes.