A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

[Debra]

I've chosen this for week 4, "an author you discovered in 2015".

First, I know I'm ahead a week but my busy season at work is starting. I have to read while I can.

Second, I know I should have discovered Dickens many years ago (like in 1983 when we read this book in English Class) but I didn't read any books I was supposed to in English Class. I didn't know even know I liked reading back then. So last year I decided to read some classics. I stayed away from this book because I failed English the semester we read it, instead I read Great Expectations and LOVED it.

So I consider Dickens newly discovered. I am going to read this 33 years after I was told to. I hope I will enjoy it as much as Great Expectations. Here we go......

[Roshini]

I'm with you on this. I'm one of those people who still hasn't read Pride and Prejudice (yes, our kind does exist!) but I read both Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in my elective English class in High School. I guess the power of a good English teacher is life changing because I loved both of them! And I loved Tale of Two Cities more than Great Expectations cause it really moves you.

[EllenZReads]

I've read a lot of Dickens but somehow don't think I ever finished this one, so it's on one of my challenge lists for another group. I love that people can still "discover" (and love) an author from the 1800s!

[JoJo]

I'm reading this for week 15: A book set in the past, more than 100 years ago (I'm reading it a week early as I'm still waiting for my week 14 book at the library).

I've never read any Dickens before, this will be my first one.

[Aglaea]

Debra wrote: "I am going to read this 33 years after I was told to."

Books are patient :)

[Jody]

I'm reading this for Week 15 too. I am also another late-Dickens-adopter - I really should have read him around 25 years ago. I finally read Great Expectations last year, which I loved, and then A Christmas Carol, which I also loved. I'm glad to see you enjoyed this even more than GE, Roshini - I actually found myself quite affected by it, so this should be great!

[JoJo]

I found it hard to get through at times but in the end I rated it 4 stars.

[Jody]

I'm struggling a bit with this one at the moment (38%). It's certainly well written, but I'm not finding it as interesting as Great Expectations, and frankly the characters aren't doing much for me.

[Jody]

Just finished ... not my favourite of his by any stretch of the imagination. I glad to have ticked it off the bucket list though, plus the ending was amazing.

[Stacey]

I just completed this for Week 4: an author you discovered in 2015. Coming late to Dickens, I really enjoyed this novel about redemption and resurrection and intend to read more of his works, as this was so far only my second encounter with him.

Like other readers, I gave it four stars - I found the writing often difficult and clunky, bumping along like an old tumbril. And some of the coincidences were a bit contrived, it's true, like when Sydney Carton just happens to show up at the Deforges' wine shop when Barsad is there doing his dirty work. But still -- there is something homey and comforting in his writing (love the descriptions of home and hearth) and here, I loved the duality and ambivalence surrounding this story.

During this "best of times, worst of times" (mainly, the worst) that make up our election year, I found this question for discussion at the back of my book made me chuckle and immediately one person sprang to mind, which was really scary:

Dickens uses the callousness and cruelty of the marquis to represent the injustice of the French aristocracy system. Are there any contemporary political or business figures that you think compare with the marquis?

[Maple]

I read this for my Rory Gilmore Challenge. It was meh. This is one of those classics that a lot of people seem to love, and I feel like I should too, but I just didn't connect with it.

2/5

[Ashley]

I read this for week 22: a book with a number in the title. I found this hard to follow at time more towards the middle of the book. But I got back on track and ended up enjoying it.