A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

I started this book because I knew it was a classic. I’ve read many other Dickens novels and I liked them. Most of his tales are hard to read because they deal with difficult social situations. The hard issues in this story was based on the French Revolution. I didn’t realize how horrible the Revolution was until I read about the mass executions performed by the common people against the nobles. But that is another issue in itself.

The story starts with a certain doctor of the name of Manette. He is a French man that was wrongfully imprisoned for reasons found out late in the book. He is brought to England where his daughter, Lucie, helps to revive him back to his normal self. She eventually falls in love with a man that goes by the name of Charles Darnay. They live happily in England until a particular event causes Darnay to return to his home country of France. He is imprisoned on account that the Revolution has begun and he comes from noble birth. Lucie and her father follow him to France to try to get Darnay out of the hands of the Republic. Dr. Manette’s former imprisonment gives him a creditable standing and the people grant his request to free Darnay. Unfortunately there are people from Darnay’s past that are determined to see him executed because of his father’s ill doing. They arrest him again and bring him to trial. There is an interesting turn of events that bring all the characters in the book together at one place. The outcome is a good ending.

Choosing one main character is hard. It really centers around Dr. Manette, his daughter Lucie and her husband Charles Darnay. These three and their lives and adventure is focus of this story. I’m very interested in Darnay. He was a man born of noble birth. But after seeing and realizing how horrible the aristocrats treated the common people, he renounced his title and moved away. He understood the horrible condition that the country of France was in with the misuse of the common people. I admire him for that. His reason for returning to France was only to help a loyal servant from the hands of the Republic. Unfortunately the people didn’t understand him and just blame him for the horrible misdeeds of his forefathers. Another interesting character is Mrs. Defarge. She is one that denounces Darnay to the people, blaming him for the acts of his father. She is a strong, evil woman that takes a large part in pushing forward the Revolution. She is a symbol of the hate and anger of the people to the aristocrats.

This story was very believable since it was based on a historical event. I never realized how bad things were before the French Revolution and how much blood shed occurred to change things. Thousands of lives were executed in the Revolution. The unfair imprisonments of Manette and of Darnay were just parts of life in the changing system of France. Each character in itself was believable in their own way. Dickens has a very thorough of describing characters. After the first introduction of a person I feel like I know them.

The story is told in third person omniscient. That is my favorite style and also one of the most common. Dickens does a very good job narrating the story. During a lot of the reading I felt like I could hear him telling a story. It was much easier to read than some of his other novels. I didn’t think it was a dark and gloomy either, even though it contained heavy issues. The time period and location were key in the story. If the French Revolution wasn’t the center point I don’t believe it would have been a believable story. It was learning experience for me to read it. I’ve heard of the French Revolution and that it was a great change in the society of France, but I never understood the gravity of the situation.

I’m not sure there is one particular part of the story that was my favorite. I liked it was a whole. There isn’t anything that I didn’t like. The ending made me glad. I’ve read some endings that didn’t turn out the way I wanted. But this one did. I will recommend this book as my favorite of Dickens. I don’t know if it should be the first Dickens book to read, because it is different from his others, but it should be in the mix of his top books. It is definitely in my top books.

Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) – I must say that Dickens is now one of my favorite authors. He has a very creative way of writing about social injustices while adding a comical air to the seriousness of it. He doesn’t take lightly the atrocities that children and the poor class went through, but he does present them with a picture of comedy. He also has a way of describing people so that you know them in the first introduction. Not only their physical description, but mostly in their character and attitude. My favorite character was probably Mrs. Nickleby. She was also very annoying. She would chatter on and on about things that don’t make any sense and aren’t relevant to the conversation. Her long winded stories about people she knew in the past and those around her amused me very much. Nicholas on the other had is also a favorite character. He is of course the hero of the story. He stands up for what he believes is right and works hard to achieve a happy life for his mother and sister. They suffered very much in the beginning after the death of Mr. Nickleby. Nicholas’ adventures in the book show how courageous and strong he was just to provide a safe home for his mother and sister. His uncle, Ralph Nickleby, was definitely the villain of the story. He really had no heart towards anyone. It was very frustrating to me to read of his plans against Nicholas and his family. I wanted to always find Nicholas and warn him of the danger that was at hand. Especially when it came to Ralph and his old friend’s scheme to marry the young, fair Madeline Bray. She was an angel in troubled waters. The plans of Ralph were of course thwarted by the friends of Madeline. And much to Nicholas’ joy because he loved her, but this was unknown to anyone until the end of the book. There really is a lot that goes on in this story and it is hard to summarize it all. It does have a happy ending, the kind you hope for, for good people like Nicholas. I’m looking forward to reading more of Dickens’ novels. He is a very skilled writer.

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) – The title of this book carries much of the weight of the story. This novel tells of a poor orphan boy, Pip. He is not able to recognize happiness and stay a hard worker in the blacksmith shop with Joe. He strives for what he thinks will be a better life. Once he is there he doesn’t find the happiness he desires because he finds his riches come from one that is not worthy in his eyes. I find that Pip is very ungrateful throughout most of the story. It is true that he is mistreated as a child and doesn’t have anything to be grateful for, but later he is blessed with some opportunities and doesn’t know how to be thankful for them.
There is a strange connection between all of the characters in this book. They are somehow related to one another in some sort of way. If not by blood then by incident. The book gives some very interesting twists in the relation of people that keeps it interesting. I almost want to yell at some of the characters to figure it out and to just get along. But the nature of the characters is very strong and unchanging.
Dickens definitely uses a style of writing that gets at your emotions rather than your head. It is very easy to follow the heart of the main character and what he is feeling. It is also easy to get angry at certain characters when they take advantage of another’s position. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was well written and kept me interested. I will for sure read another Dickens book at some time or another.