A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens / David Zane Mairowitz (graphic novel)

by David Zane Mairowitz, Ryuta Osada (Illustrator), Charles Dickens (Creator)

A graphic adaptation of the most printed English book of all time. After 18 years as a prisoner in the Bastille, Dr Manette is reunited with his daughter in England. There, two very different men - an exiled French aristocrat and a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer - become joined through their love for Lucie Manette.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Classics, Historical Fiction, Fiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Mairowitz is a writer who studied English Literature and Philosophy at Hunter College, New York, and Drama at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is the author of the plays "The Law Circus" (1969 and "Flash Gordon and the Angels" (1971). Other works include "BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1965-70," "The Radical Soap Opera: Roots of Failure in the American Left," "Kafka for Beginners" and "Introducing Camus."

Reviews

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube) · Rating 1 out of 5]

What sounded like a great idea - reading a graphic novel about a classic - turned out to be a complete fail.
I love reading classics but they are often very intimidating so why not read a quick, simple version of it to see how you would like it beforehand?
As someone who has never read A Tale of Two Cities I was incredibly confused. No idea what happened, I kept mixing up characters... just no.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got maybe 20 pages into this before throwing it down. First complaint: It moves way too quickly. By page 20 it was already two thirds of the way through the story. One of the amazing things about A Tale of Two Cities is the depth of it. The plot itself, while well constructed and moving, is not the reason one reads Dickens's novel. It is all in the WAY he tells it. The foreshadowing, the symbolism, the characters and their interactions, and the way in which it all ties in to the greater happenings in London and Paris at the time. All of these things are lost in this adaptation. Not only is each interaction incredibly sparse (especially when compared to the richness of the same dialogues in the original), but there are important characters that seem to be entirely missing, which leave out certain pieces of the puzzle.

It's possible that as the book goes along it gets better, but I couldn't deal with it long enough to find out.

[⋆.˚ Ariana ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m intrigued to read the actual book now. I won’t lie, I was confused most of the time, but the graphics were well drawn that I couldn’t help but be in awe of them. Things happened way too fast for my liking and for my brain to register what’s happening. I know I didn’t decipher what and why exactly happened, deep down I know that it was really good.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

probably the worst adaptation of a thing I've ever read.

[Brenda Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t understand most of what was happening. Some of the pictures and font were beautiful, otherwise it would have only received 1 star.

[Elif Nuran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to comment the book after seeing all the 1 stars and bad comments below. First of all, you are all right, that book is probably one of the worst graphic novel editions of classics. A Tale of Two Cities is a way more complicated and long story. So 140+ pages could be just minimalised of minimalised version. But still they could pick better parts. It's completely incomprehensible for a reader who haven't read the actual book.
In my case, because I've read the book before and know the story very well, reading this book was pleasant and I had fun. If you also read the actual book before, you can give this book a chance. Otherwise, I really do not recommend.

[Tanuj Solanki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible.

[Richard Archambault · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I've never read the actual novel, so I had no idea what the story was about. About 1/3 of the way through, I still barely had a hold on what the story is. So many scene jumps, so little actually explained, so little exposition. I skimmed through the rest and probably understood just as much doing it that way.

[Maham Nasir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tho the art style is very pretty but as I've never read the original one before it was really hard for me to understand the story. It was really rushed and I felt like the relationships weren't defined properly.

[Walter Sorto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures were amazing and story too.

[Zahirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit confusing at times and I don’t like the font for the narrator, it was hard to read.

[Tedi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was not meant to be adapted into a graphic novel. I have read this before, albeit quite a long time ago, and I had a very hard time following what was going on for most of the story.

[رومولا الن emmajain-book · Rating 3 out of 5]

قصة ممتعه مليئة بالرسومات الجميله
اعادة الي ذكريات رواية قصة مدينتين وهي من اروع ما قرأت

[Alicia Sandoval Poveda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bellos dibujos, triste y genial historia. Sin embargo, el formato de novela gráfica obliga a resumir demasiado la riqueza de la novela original y queda en falta.

[Alissa Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as part of the BookRiot's Read Harder 2021 Challenge. It did not impress me in the least. It was hard to follow, however, I must confess I never read the novel.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't know what was going on and stopped reading

[Mikko Kinnunen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Idea ok, mut tästä ei kyl ei ois saanu mitään tolkkua ellei ois pohjateosta lukenu... vaik olikin, ni silti oli työlästä erottaa esim. henkilöt toisistaan, johtuen pitkälti piirrosjäljestä.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hadn't read the actual novel by Dickens before I read this graphic novel and I found that I didn't understand what was going on. The characters were introduced rather quickly and I felt that the relationships between them weren't established clearly enough for me to understand what was going on. The pacing itself also seemed to be rather fast, although with the constraints of the form, I suppose this is understandable. Other than that though, the artwork was nice and I would now like to read the original to better understand what seems to be a good book.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Joon N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's about French Revolution, which I'm not familiar with. I couldn't enjoy the book wholly because I had only few backgrounds. Illustration and dialogues are solid, but I didn't get what book is trying to say.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came across my desk today so I read it during lunch. Super confusing if you've never read the source material. Nice artwork though.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read the original and couldn't understand what was happening in the graphic novel. Perhaps if I had read the original, I would have liked this more.

[Rehan Abd Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who haven't read the book yet, pls do so before u attempt to read this graphic novel..

[Nectaria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written. My teacher had to explain the novel in order for it to be understood. Far more enjoyable when I understood what was going on and the illustrations were lovely.

[Jin B.]

this was hard book. the paint was messy to me, and the story was messy too

[Becky B · Rating 2 out of 5]

A graphic novel adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic about two men who bear a striking resemblance to each other. One is an English rogue, one is a French aristocrat from a family of scoundrels. Both care for one British woman whose father was locked away in a French prison for over a decade. As the French revolution gains momentum, these people are caught in the maelstrom. One man is unjustly accused, one man will do something more noble than ever before in his life, and revenge will destroy many.

I normally love graphic novel adaptations of classics as it helps make very elite reading more accessible. However, I think this proves that Dickens' plots are just too complex to translate well into a summarized graphic novel form. It loses a lot of the brilliance, and this comes off stilted and harsh. The original is so much more. If you absolutely can't understand the original, I guess this is an ok way to get it. And I get that. A lot of the students I work with wouldn't get past the first chapter. But if you have the patience and reading level, please go read the original instead.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. One beheaded head held aloft, one stabbing victim shown. It's pretty bloody.

[Tuğçe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Çizgi roman olduğu için orjinalinden daha farklı ve az kapsamlı olacağını biliyordum ama tüm o sayfalar dolu dolu on sayfa ediyor mu acaba? 144 sayfada eminim biraz daha fazla yazı olabilirdi. Hayal kırıklığı...

[Wasi Rizvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was rendered into a graphic novel quite brilliantly, yet the extremely fast pace won't make it very enjoyable if you haven't already read the classic text-based book version.

It is short enough to be read in one go, which is just purely awesome.