Sunday, April 1, 2012

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

About the book: After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.


My Thoughts: Oh, my. I can't believe I've waited all this time to read this book. I've never seen the movie either, so it was all new to me.  I enjoyed the setting, the historical backdrop as well as the story of the characters. Dickens broke my heart a couple of times here, what wonderful writing. However, it seemed that the characters lost out a bit to the descriptions of the times. Highly recommened.

Quote: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.