[F2F Book Discussions] July 2014: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens | Moderators: Ycel & DC

[DC]

Hello, TFG citizens and citizenesses! We’re Ycel & DC, and we are your moderators for TFG's chosen book of the month for July 2014. Our theme is Classics by Male Authors Originally Published as Serial Fiction, and this month, we will be talking about Charles Dickens' epic novel, A Tale of Two Cities.


((For the week of July 21-24, we will be discussing Book 3, Chapters 8-15.
July 25: Online Screening. | July 26: Face-to-face discussion.
Post for Book 3, Chapters 8-12. | Post for Book 3, Chapters 13-15 (with Qs).

If you've just begun, don't worry; we'd still love to hear about what you think of the book so far :) You can also still answer past questions and activities. Here are the links:
Day 1 Qs & activity. | Day 2 Qs & activity. | Day 3 Qs. | Day 4 Qs. | Day 5 Q. | Day 6 Q. | Day 7 Activity. | Day 8 Qs. | Day 9 Qs. | Day 10 Qs & activity.))


Looking for a copy?
- Fully Booked may have one for you.
- Downloadable / web versions of the ebook here.
- Audio book here.
- First part of the videobook here. (Transcript on the video + narrator in the background.)

(If you are having trouble with the links above, let us know, and we'll try our best to help you out.)


Reading Plan
Like most Victorian authors, Dickens could be verbose. At roughly 400 pages, ATO2C is actually one of his shorter novels. A reading plan grouped into chapters with common setting and timeframe is the most logical and practical way to read this novel.

We are looking at around 2 chapters per day, everyday, until before the F2F on July 26. You are, of course, more than welcome to read a few pages ahead. :)

Click this tag for the reading plan: (view spoiler)[

June 29 – 30
Introduction to Dickens and the French Revolution

July 1 – 3 (~50 pages)
Book the First: Recalled to Life
Chapter 1 (Background): Post on Book 1, Chapters 1-4.
Chapters 2 – 4 (England, 1775)
Chapters 5 – 6 (France, 1775): Post on Book 1, Chapters 5-6.

July 4 – 15 (~200 pages)
Book the Second: The Golden Thread
Chapters 1 – 6 (England, 1780): Post on Book 2, Chapters 1-6.
Chapters 7 – 9 (France, 1780) Post on Book 2, Chapters 7-9.
Chapters 10 – 14 (England, 1781) Post on Book 2, Chapters 10-13. | Post on Book 2, Chapters 14-15.
Chapters 15 – 16 (France, 1781) Post on Book 2, Chapters 16-18.
Chapters 17 – 20 (England, 1781) Post on Book 2, Chapters 19-20.
Chapters 21 – 22 (England & France, 1789) Post on Book 2, Chapters 21-24.
Chapter 23 (France, 1789)
Chapter 24 (England, 1792)

July 16 – 23 (~150 pages)
Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
Chapter 1 (France, 1792) Post on Book 3, Chapters 1-3.
Chapters 2 – 15 (France, 1793) Post on Book 3, Chapters 4-7.
(hide spoiler)]



Discussion proper
We will be posting questions around 2-3 times a week (maybe more), and have some activities, too. Readers aren't required to answer the questions (but it sure would be great if you did!), and you are all welcome to post about your thoughts on the chapters you have so far read.

However, please take into consideration the others who are following the reading plan, so if you've got anything spoiler-ish to talk/rant/violently react about, go ahead and do so while using the (view spoiler)[spoiler (hide spoiler)] tags.


Film showing on July 25
Besides our reading plan, we would like to top the online discussion off with an (online) showing of the 1935 Jack Conway-directed film adaptation of the book. Online screening thread is here.

(It's known to be a faithful adaptation of ATO2C. Here's its IMDb page.)

This will be done via livestreaming, and could just be a fun night of casual conversation, funny laughs, and, of course, fire & tears. (I remember that we had fun when TFG had screenings of the Pride & Prejudice TV series some time before.)


F2F on July 26
At the end of the month, we will be meeting with other members of TFG who have read/are reading/want to read the book, and we would love it if you would join us to share with us your own thoughts, rants, and what not.

Don't be shy! We'd love to see you :)
The event thread is here. | Note your yea or nay on joining the event here.


We thank you for dropping by, and we hope to hear of your own ideas about Lucie, Madame Defarge, Charles Darnay, and all the merry bunch in this tale about two cities.

[DC]

Here's a little intro and some notes about A Tale of Two Cities, just to help you get an idea about the book, and the man behind the novel.

On ATO2C

ATO2C is Dickens' twelfth novel and was published in his new weekly journal, All the Year Round, without illustrations. In an innovative move, Dickens simultaneously released installments of the novel on a monthly basis with illustrations. Dickens took advantage of the novel's serial publication to experiment with characterization, plot, and theme. He described the work in a letter to his friend John Forster, cited in Rudi Glancy's A Tale of Two Cities: Dickens's Revolutionary Novel, as "a picturesque story rising in every chapter, with characters true to nature, but whom the story should express more than they should express themselves by dialogue." The novel that emerged from his experimentation is now regarded as one of Dickens's most popular and most innovative works.

Read more: (view spoiler)[
ATO2C occupies a central place in the canon of Charles Dickens' works. This novel is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and Dickens researched the historical background meticulously, using his friend Thomas Carlyle's History of the French Revolution as a reference. This historical accuracy, with less reliance on character development and humor, led to the rather un-Dickensian feel of the book.

Dickens' work was very popular with the reading public when it was first published. One review in the magazine Athenaeum stated that A Tale of Two Cities had attracted the praise of a hundred thousand readers. On the other hand, a whole set of critics, most notably Sir James Fitzjames Stephen writing in Saturday Review, criticized the novel precisely for its popularity. "Most of the critics writing in the intellectual and literary journals of the day considered popular success a good reason to condemn a work," explains Glancy. "If the public liked it, they certainly could not be seen to approve of it at all." Modern critical opinion, however, has given the novel an important place among Dickens' most mature works of fiction.
(hide spoiler)]


Dickens and His Time

Charles Dickens was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian Age, a time period spanning roughly from the 1820s to the end of the nineteenth century. He was born in Portsmouth, England in 1812. As the second of eight children in a very poor family, he lived a difficult childhood. Eventually, his father was sent to debtor’s prison, and Dickens himself went to work at the age of twelve to help pay off the family’s debt.

This troublesome time scarred Dickens deeply and provided him with substantial material for such stories as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield. Steeped in social criticism, Dickens’s writing provides a keen, sympathetic chronicle of the plight of the urban poor in nineteenth-century England. During his lifetime, Dickens enjoyed immense popularity, in part because of his vivid characterizations, and in part because he published his novels in installments, making them readily affordable to a greater number of people.

Read more: (view spoiler)[
The Industrial Revolution, which swept through Europe in the late eighteenth century, originated in England. The rapid modernization of the English economy involved a shift from rural handicraft to large-scale factory labor. Technological innovations facilitated unprecedented heights of manufacture and trade, and England left behind its localized, cottage-industry economy to become a centralized, hyper-capitalist juggernaut of mass production. In tandem with this transformation came a significant shift in the nation’s demographics. English cities swelled as a growing and impoverished working class flocked to them in search of work. As this influx of workers into urban centers continued, the bourgeoisie took advantage of the surplus of labor by keeping wages low. The poor thus remained poor, and often lived cramped in squalor. In many of his novels, Dickens chronicles his protagonists’ attempts to fight their way out of such poverty and despair.

In 1859, Dickens started serializing his novels after a falling-out with his regular publishers. Indeed, this period in Dickens’s life saw many changes. While starring in a play by Wilkie Collins entitled The Frozen Deep, Dickens fell in love with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. Dickens’ twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth had become a source of unhappiness in recent years, and, by 1858, Hogarth had moved out of Dickens’s home. The author arranged to keep Ternan in a separate residence.

Dickens’s participation in Collins’s play led not only to a shift in his personal life, but also to a career development, for it was this play that first inspired him to write ATO2C. Dickens appreciated the play for its treatment of redemption and rebirth, love and violence. He decided to transpose these themes onto the French Revolution, an event that embodied the same issues on a historical level.

Dickens had forayed into historical fiction only once before, with Barnaby Rudge (1841), and the project proved a difficult undertaking. The vast scope and somewhat grim aspects of his historical subject forced Dickens largely to abandon the outlandish and often comic characters that had come to define his writing. Although Jerry Cruncher and Miss Pross embody some typically Dickensian quirks—exaggerated mannerisms, idiosyncratic speech—they play only minor roles in the novel. While critics continue to debate the literary merits of the novel, no one denies the light that the novel sheds on Dickens’ development as a novelist. More experimental than the novels that precede it, ATO2C shows its author in transition. Dickens would emerge from this transition as a mature artist, ready to write Great Expectations (1860–1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865).
(hide spoiler)]


Trivia about the French Revolution

As provided by the participants of this discussion. (Thank you everybody!) Check this post to view it.

[DC]

Our official reading plan actually starts on July 1. On these days before we start talking about ATO2C, we'd first like to get your own preconceived opinions about it, and maybe even on Charles Dickens himself.

Day 1 Questions
Have you read Dickens before? If yes, how was it?
Do you have any expectations about this book? What are they?

Day 1 Activity
ATO2C is a novel about the French Revolution. To get ourselves ready for the myriad of references about this war, do share with us 3 facts about this momentous historical milestone.

[Maria Ella]

Sawsaw-suka...

Yes, I have read Charles Dickens in High School as a required read. Junior High School, when the English and Social Studies are in sync with the topics of World Lit (around 3rd grading period-ish)... discussions of British lit and its relationship with its Industrial Revolution (I am not good with history or lit so please enlighten me more hehe)

I find Oliver Twist funny, A Christmas Carol sad, and Great Expectations cheesy *full of mala-telenovela cheeseballs hahaha.

My mum reads Charles Dickens, but the abridged versions. When we discussed about David Copperfield, she was so engrossed with the "British situation" (as she calls it, saying "naging mahirap rin pala ang London, ano?") I started buying some abridged versions of other works.

Yay for this discussion. I hope this time around I will not feel the pressure and read the whole version of this novel again... after all those years of my distant panks-not-die-kumakain-ng-bakal childhood.

Looking forward to share my inputs, if I am not that busy. Or if I am deadly busy (view spoiler)[magpapaalam po ako to read its illustrated version instead. May nakita akong torrent kasi, hehe. As early as today I am apologizing na... (hide spoiler)]

[Maria Ella]

Uhm French Revolution...?
1. The french desired to have Democracy. It is this timeline that they are so fed up with the powerful monarchies.
2. Sumikat si Napoleon Bonaparte in this timeline
3. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains his sentiments about this time period.

^Not exactly wikipedia-hardcoded facts, but my personal interpretive research. Ang sabaw ko lang bwahaha. :)

[Angus]

Day 1 Questions
(view spoiler)[
Yep! I've read Great Expectations last year. It was a rather long journey but I really love how all the plot lines were resolved. And that ending! :')

Because of Great Expectations, I have great expectations for ATO2C, particularly a wonderful storytelling. And weird character names. (I'm actually done with Part I, so I might be reading ahead for a few days.)
(hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity
(view spoiler)[
Let's talk about The Bastille!

1. When The Bastille was stormed, there were only seven prisoners. However, the revolutionaries were really after the arms that were kept within it.

2. Among those seven prisoners was the Marquis de Sade, author of 120 Days of Sodom.

3. Bastille is an alternative spelling of the word "bastide", which means fortification.
(hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

DAY 1 QUESTIONS
(view spoiler)[Yes, I've read A Christmas Carol a few years back. I've always been curious about it so I downloaded the free copy from Amazon and enjoyed it. Rated it 4/5. Expectations for this book? I hope I enjoy it! I do pick classics every once in a while, and I'm hoping I'd have fun with this (read: please don't be a boring read, Cities!). (hide spoiler)]

DAY 1 ACTIVITY
(view spoiler)[
1. Louis XVI’s hobby as a locksmith was well known, so when he and Marie Antoinette couldn’t conceive a child for seven years at the beginning of their marriage, more than a few racy libelles mocked their fertility problems (“Can the King do it?” “He can’t find the keyhole.” etc.).

2. The Bastille was torn down BY HAND. Because they didn’t have powerful explosives, the men, women, and children that stormed the Parisian fortress tore it down brick by brick. The bricks were given away/sold as symbols of the breakdown of tyranny.

3. There was a lot of weird erotica slandering the monarchy during the years of and leading up to the Revolution. Libelle pamphlets were meant to undermine the power of the monarchy, and often threw shade at the personal lives of the French nobility. Marie Antoinette became a symbol of extravagancy because of her outlandish spending and partying, and therefore an easy target for libelle authors. (Ooooh. So that's where "libel" came from?)

(view spoiler)[
(hide spoiler)]

SOURCE: Buzzfeed!
(hide spoiler)]

[Miles]

1. I've read a couple of Dicken's work, and Hard Times being my favorite. It was a critique on the inhumane economic system and materialism of the Industrial Age, as I would like to believe. As G.B. Shaw would put it "...[it] was written to make the reader feel uncomfortable".

2.a. I think the French Revolution is the beginning of the era in history called the Modern Age.
b. This was the time when one can make a fortune from authorship. Voltaire et al, also called the philosophes, wrote works that influenced the ideology of the French revolution. Freedom, equality, and brotherhood.
c. The CLERGY, which was one of the cornerstones for the Old Regime, was in one hell of a shit storm. lol

[Gwaxa]

Day 1 Questions
(view spoiler)[Nope. First time. TFG is claiming all my bookish firsts, huh?
I only expect to finish this. I think I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't. (hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity
(view spoiler)[1. The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.

2. Even the wrong turn of phrase could lead to arrest and trial under the Law of Suspects. There was at least two cases where the accused was tried for referring to another person as ‘Monsieur’ (Mister) instead of the accepted revolutionary greeting of ‘citoyen’ (citizen).

3. The parlements had the power to order the use of torture to extract information from prisoners or witnesses. This was abolished by order of Louis XVI in 1788 – an important but overlooked reform on the eve of revolution. (hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

Gwaxa wrote: "Nope. First time. TFG is claiming all my bookish firsts, huh?"

#DickensVirgin :))

[Gwaxa]

^"It's been a long time since I've been called a virgin."
- Miss Ronnie FTW. Hahahaha.

[Miles]

#DickensVirgin :))

lol. I just find it funny cuz Dicken's had like 10 children.

[Louize]

Day 1
Question:
(view spoiler)[
No virgin here. I've read A Christmas Carol(reread in 2010), Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge during my younger years. I made an ambitious peek at David Copperfield, but abandoned it due to the sheer weight of the bound copy we have in the old house.
(hide spoiler)]

Activity:
(view spoiler)[
The practice of burying the bodies of the French royal family at Saint-Denis and sending their internal organs to various other churches was well established. Most of these cardiotaphs were melted down during the Revolution, and their contents burned. However, some of the hearts were actually sold to artists. For example, the heart of Louis XIV was sold to the landscape painter Pau de Saint-Martin. Some speculate that the red coats of figures in the foreground of his View of Caen, now in the museum of Pontoise, owe their unusual pigmentation to the royal heart.

King Louis XVI of France, his Queen, Marie Antoinette, and their two surviving children, Marie-Thérèse and Louis-Charles, were in August of 1792 thrown into the Temple Tower, a prison that was once the medieval stronghold of the Knights Templar (the building was later destroyed during the Restoration). Also incarcerated with them was Madame Elisabeth, Louis XVI’s young sister. The King was sent to the guillotine on 21 January 1793, with the Queen following in October 16, and the Princess Elisabeth soon after, May 10th of 1794. The summer before the Queen’s trial, the little Dauphin, Louis Charles was separated from his mother, aunt, and sister and locked in a separate cell beneath theirs.

The Dauphin, Louis-Charles, was just seven years old when first thrown into prison. By all reports he was a happy, healthy boy with chubby cheeks, who enjoyed the family’s forced seclusion at the Tuileries because, as he once confided to a courtier,it meant he got to see so much more of his parents than he had at Versailles. His treatment in prison was actually worse than anyone else in the Bourbon family.

Interestingly, the physician who first treated the Dauphin, Dr. Joseph Desault, is reported to have said that the child in the Temple did not resemble the prince he had seen before the Revolution. Desault died suddenly on 1 June 1795 after hinting at dark deeds afoot. His wife insisted he had been poisoned.

After Desault’s death, Dr. Philippe-Jean Pelletan was brought in to treat the boy. When the child died, Pelletan was brought back to the Temple to perform an autopsy. At the end of the postmortem, Pelletan did indeed wrap the boy’s heart in his handkerchief and smuggle it out of the prison in his pocket. He preserved the heart in alcohol and kept it in a rock crystal vase in his study.

After the Restoration, Pelletan tried to give the heart to Marie-Thérèse, and then to the newly crowned King Louis XVIII and to several other royals, but no one would accept it. Finally, nearing death, Pelletan gave the heart to the Archbishop of Paris. The heart was in the Archbishop’s Palace when it was looted by rioters during the Revolution of 1830. The crystal vase was smashed, and the heart thrown on the floor.

However, some days after the riots, Philippe-Jean Pelletan’s son, Gabriel, who was also a physician, went to the palace with one of the rioters, a man named Lescroat, and is said to have found the heart amongst the debris. The heart was put into a new vessel and ultimately given to the Bourbon claimant to the French throne.

After that, the heart traipsed around Europe, from Spain to Austria and Italy, threatened repeatedly by war and destruction, before finally being entombed in 1975 at the Basilica of Saint-Denis outside of Paris, the traditional burial place of French kings. But controversy over its authenticity continued. Recent DNA tests on the heart have shown that, despite its shaky provenance, the heart did indeed come from a descendent of Marie Antoinette’s Hapsburg maternal line.

At any rate, the Dauphin’s heart now has its own book: The Lost King of France: The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. (hide spoiler)]

[Mabelle]

Day 1 question
(view spoiler)[
I started reading this before but I did not finish...
Medyo takot ako magbasa ng classic! hahaha..
Hopefully, (as in) I'll be able to finish this with you... (hide spoiler)]

Day 1 activity
(view spoiler)[
1. Two of the reasons of the revolution are years of feudal oppression and unfair taxation.
2. The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the Absolute Monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty, following the steps of the United States of America.
3. The end of the revolution is the rise of Napoleon to power. (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Day 1 Questions
(view spoiler)[This would be my first Dickens novel. I've been planning to read a Dickens novel this year and I initially chose Great Expectations. But since this book won the poll, I'm going to put off reading that book and read this instead. :)

I hope that I will like the book so that I would be more eager to read the other popular Dickens novels. (hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity
(view spoiler)[1. In 1781, Jacques Necker, Louis XVI's Finance Minister, criticized the royal pension system and the royal family expenditures in an open letter called “Compte rendu au roi”. For the first time ever, the people of France could have a look on the royal family expenses. The content of this letter shocked the people and this could be considered as one of the causes of the French Revolution.

2. On January 21st, 1793 Louis XVI was executed in front of the people of France who saluted his death as the beginning of a better era. Before his execution, in a voice so loud, he pronounced distinctly these memorable words: "I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France."

3. Queen Marie Antoinette Of France is perhaps best remembered for her legendary excesses and for her death: she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason. (hide spoiler)]

[Tin]

Day 1:(view spoiler)[ My only experience with Charles Dickens are the many A Christmas Carol/Scrooge reiterations in animated films. And I also saw two Great Expectations movie adaptations, the old one with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke, tapos yung 2013 release. That's about it. Maybe after reading this, I'll finally know what they mean when they say Dickensian this and Dickensian that. Or i-Google ko nalang kaya? :) (hide spoiler)]

Day 2:(view spoiler)[
1. During the French Revolution, the people were divided into three estates. The first estate were the clergy, the second were the nobility, the third included peasants and the bourgeoisie. Only the third estate were commanded to pay taxes.

2. It was said that during the French Revolution,the peasants were suffering from a widespread famine to which Marie Antoinette said the famous line: "Let them eat cake." In French: "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. And sosyal kapag French. This was never confirmed, they say. They might have attributed the quote to her because she was becoming unpopular with the masses.

3. Louis XVI did not like the revolution and planned an escape with the rest of his family dressed up as servants. They were however caught and arrested in Varennes. (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

ELLA: (view spoiler)[
No worries about being busy at work and the illustrated edition. If that will help you get in Dickens mode again, that’s OK. But (view spoiler)[you will need the unabridged text to really get into the F2F groove. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

ANGUS: (view spoiler)[
I found a very nice copy of Great Expectations early this year so this is in my TBR this year :) Just let me know who is more evil (view spoiler)[Madame Defarge or Miss Havisham? (hide spoiler)]

Oh, wow! I did not know about the Marquis de Sade! You will indeed find the reference to the seven prisoners in Book II, but Dickens kept mum about the marquis. Thanks for that tidbit :) (hide spoiler)]

MONIQUE: (view spoiler)[
I understand your fear about ATO2C being boring. The thing with Dickens is he’s very exact because he uses a lot of references and allusions from his time. Book I is where he sets up the storyline, so be patient (we’ll help you out as much as we can with Book I). Book II and III will be a breeze and fulfilling :)

Whoa! What an interesting background on the libelle. Heehee. This ties nicely with Angus’ Marquis de Sade tidbit. LOL! (hide spoiler)]

MILES: (view spoiler)[
Excellent observation on the French Revolution being the beginning of the Modern Age. Historians pretty much agree on this one. (hide spoiler)]

GWAXA: (view spoiler)[
We will help you finish ATO2C, don’t worry :) I know how it feels to be a Dickens Virgin, hihi (hide spoiler)]

LOUIZE: (view spoiler)[
Wow, you’re the Dickens scholar in the house. You’re all set to read The Goldfinch then :)

Your trivia about the Dauphin’s heart reminds me of the relics of Saint Joan of Arc. Thanks for sharing :) (hide spoiler)]

MABELLE: (view spoiler)[
This is one of the most satisfying books I have ever read, so that should be enough motivation for you to try again :) (hide spoiler)]

MELIZA: (view spoiler)[
I will gladly join you in reading Great Expectations :)

Agree on the cake quote being unconfirmed. You might say that this is one of those early urban legends. (hide spoiler)]

TIN: (view spoiler)[
Dickensian is one of those overused words that has lost its meaning, hahah. They say that ATO2C is his most un-Dickensian novel, if you’re basing it on the weird characters that people his other novels.

We’ve got a nice follow up on your trivia #3. Wait for it :)
(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Thank you everyone for your answers! We do appreciate you all taking the time to respond :)

I hope that you are all enjoying the trivia you're giving out as much as we do. (These tidbits will really help give depth to our discussions of ATO2C!)

Nevertheless, for everyone's reference, here are the French Revolution trivia you've all so far provided.

Click this tag to view it: (view spoiler)[

Ella
1. The French desired to have Democracy. It is this timeline that they are so fed up with the powerful monarchies.
2. Sumikat si Napoleon Bonaparte in this timeline
3. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains his sentiments about this time period.

[Ella says: ^Not exactly wikipedia-hardcoded facts, but my personal interpretive research. Ang sabaw ko lang bwahaha. :) ]


Angus
1. When The Bastille was stormed, there were only seven prisoners. However, the revolutionaries were really after the arms that were kept within it.
2. Among those seven prisoners was the Marquis de Sade, author of 120 Days of Sodom.
3. Bastille is an alternative spelling of the word "bastide", which means fortification.


Monique
1. Louis XVI’s hobby as a locksmith was well known, so when he and Marie Antoinette couldn’t conceive a child for seven years at the beginning of their marriage, more than a few racy libelles mocked their fertility problems (“Can the King do it?” “He can’t find the keyhole.” etc.).
2. The Bastille was torn down BY HAND. Because they didn’t have powerful explosives, the men, women, and children that stormed the Parisian fortress tore it down brick by brick. The bricks were given away/sold as symbols of the breakdown of tyranny.
3. There was a lot of weird erotica slandering the monarchy during the years of and leading up to the Revolution. Libelle pamphlets were meant to undermine the power of the monarchy, and often threw shade at the personal lives of the French nobility. Marie Antoinette became a symbol of extravagancy because of her outlandish spending and partying, and therefore an easy target for libelle authors. (Ooooh. So that's where "libel" came from?)

[Monique also posted a controversial photo, wow. Check out her comment to view it.]


Miles
a. I think the French Revolution is the beginning of the era in history called the Modern Age.
b. This was the time when one can make a fortune from authorship. Voltaire et al, also called the philosophes, wrote works that influenced the ideology of the French revolution. Freedom, equality, and brotherhood.
c. The CLERGY, which was one of the cornerstones for the Old Regime, was in one hell of a shit storm. lol


Gwaxa
1. The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.
2. Even the wrong turn of phrase could lead to arrest and trial under the Law of Suspects. There was at least two cases where the accused was tried for referring to another person as ‘Monsieur’ (Mister) instead of the accepted revolutionary greeting of ‘citoyen’ (citizen).
3. The parlements had the power to order the use of torture to extract information from prisoners or witnesses. This was abolished by order of Louis XVI in 1788 – an important but overlooked reform on the eve of revolution.


Louize
The practice of burying the bodies of the French royal family at Saint-Denis and sending their internal organs to various other churches was well established. Most of these cardiotaphs were melted down during the Revolution, and their contents burned. However, some of the hearts were actually sold to artists. For example, the heart of Louis XIV was sold to the landscape painter Pau de Saint-Martin. Some speculate that the red coats of figures in the foreground of his View of Caen, now in the museum of Pontoise, owe their unusual pigmentation to the royal heart.

[Read more of Louize's trivia in her post. It also contains a reference from her :) Check it out here.]


Mabelle
1. Two of the reasons of the revolution are years of feudal oppression and unfair taxation.
2. The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the Absolute Monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty, following the steps of the United States of America.
3. The end of the revolution is the rise of Napoleon to power.


Meliza
1. In 1781, Jacques Necker, Louis XVI's Finance Minister, criticized the royal pension system and the royal family expenditures in an open letter called “Compte rendu au roi”. For the first time ever, the people of France could have a look on the royal family expenses. The content of this letter shocked the people and this could be considered as one of the causes of the French Revolution.
2. On January 21st, 1793 Louis XVI was executed in front of the people of France who saluted his death as the beginning of a better era. Before his execution, in a voice so loud, he pronounced distinctly these memorable words: "I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France."
3. Queen Marie Antoinette Of France is perhaps best remembered for her legendary excesses and for her death: she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason.


Tin
1. During the French Revolution, the people were divided into three estates. The first estate were the clergy, the second were the nobility, the third included peasants and the bourgeoisie. Only the third estate were commanded to pay taxes.
2. It was said that during the French Revolution,the peasants were suffering from a widespread famine to which Marie Antoinette said the famous line: "Let them eat cake." In French: "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. And sosyal kapag French. This was never confirmed, they say. They might have attributed the quote to her because she was becoming unpopular with the masses.
3. Louis XVI did not like the revolution and planned an escape with the rest of his family dressed up as servants. They were however caught and arrested in Varennes.


Gay
1. French Revolution was a time for great divide among the Frenchmen. It showed huge discrepancy on the lifestyle among the social class.
2. Well-known and well-loved novel Les Miserables was set in this time.


Bennard
1. The guillotine saw its rise to prominence during the French Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror.
2. The term "left" and "right" that is used in politics saw its origins during the French Revolution. This was due to the National Assembly being literally divided when supporters of the monarchy seated themselves to the right of the President and the supporters of the revolution to the left.
3. "Let them eat cake" is not the only famous phrase that is attributed to Marie Antoinette. Another quote attributed to her was uttered just before she was executed through the guillotine. She allegedly said: "Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose." to her executioner after she accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner. How true is this anecdote? I do not know.
4. Also, I have an additional trivia about the Bastille. Marquis de Sade is not the only literary prisoner to be held there because the Bastille, for a time period, also held the "Man in the Iron Mask" who was the inspiration of Alexandre Dumas for the novel of the same name. Up to now, the identity of the MitIM is still up for debate.

Veronica
1. The Storming of the Bastille is normally considered the opening volley of the French Revolution. France had been in terrible shape because of lavish expenditures by Louis XiV, primarily on foreign wars. French society under the ancien regime consisted of three estates, clergy, nobility and peasantry (translated "everyone else.") Only the third estate paid taxes, the clergy and nobility were exempt. The French Monarchy had raised money by selling titles of nobility (creating so-called "nobility of the robe") whose recipients were themselves free from paying taxes as were their heirs in perpetuity. The end result was an increasingly smaller tax base with increasingly higher taxes.
2. Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the three estates, the Estates General, which had not met in over 100 years to ask for an increase in taxes. The three estates each voted separately, and the first two always easily outvoted the third. When this appeared to happen again, the Third Estate fled from the meeting and formed a new government known as the National Assembly which passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It provided for equality before the law and many civil liberties. This was the birth of the French Republic. Louis XVI and his Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette, attempted to flee the country in disguise, but were caught and imprisoned. They were later beheaded for treason.
3. The revolution itself did not solve all the problems of the people, particularly the working poor known as the sans coulottes. It appeared that another revolution was at hand; but the Jacobins, a radical group in the Assembly, instituted a Directory to maintain order. The head of the Directory, Maximilien Robespierre, was determined that there would not be another revolution. Hundreds were arrested and guillotined; but eventually Robespierre lost the support of the Assembly and was himself guillotined.
4. Incidentally, the Guillotine was developed by a committee headed by a dentist, Dr. Guillotin. It was thought to be a more humane way of execution, as close to painless as possible. It was so abused, however that Dr. Guillotin's family changed their name.
5. Subsequently, a large group of nobility marched on the Assembly, apparently ready to overthrow it. They were stopped by a "whiff of grapeshot," that is cannon fire, by a French General known as Napoleon Bonaparte, who soon took over the government and instituted the French Empire.

(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Just to add to Ycel's comments:

Ella: (view spoiler)[It's all right if you choose to take the illustrated edition route, but it would be a pity if you miss out on some of Dickens' finer points. Nevertheless, we still hope to see your own inputs on the discussion. (Especially sa mga (view spoiler)["marriage proposals", and ang mala-Maria Clarang si Lucie. (hide spoiler)] Hahaha! At 'yong iyak factors :D) Just ask questions in case there are any points that you may have missed if you won't be reading the unabridged version :)
(hide spoiler)]

Angus: (view spoiler)[I'm personally looking forward to what you have to say for the first chapters. Ycel & I agree that the initial foray is rather difficult to read, especially for a non-classics reader.
(hide spoiler)]

Monique: (view spoiler)[Funnily enough, I once found it difficult to read A Christmas Carol, especially, I believe, when I was younger. All the classical references, rah!

I agree with Ycel; the difficult thing about ATO2C will be the references. We will try our best to give addendum that would hopefully help you to enjoy the book's colorful background :)
(hide spoiler)]

Miles: (view spoiler)[As G.B. Shaw would put it "...[it] was written to make the reader feel uncomfortable."
Wow, I'm all about uncomfortable reads. Now /I/ have to check that out. Thanks for the reference!
(hide spoiler)]

Gwaxa: (view spoiler)[Nevertheless, thanks for the initiative! To be honest, mahirap talaga siyang basahin, lalo't kung hindi ka mahilig sa classics. I suppose you can ask Ella for a link to the illustrated edition too, if that would help? If this is the first time you'll be reading Dickens, a supplementary visual reference might just be the thing to pull you through the entire novel :D
(hide spoiler)]

Louize: (view spoiler)[Since you've read a number of books by Dickens, have you noticed any similarities about his writing? (hide spoiler)]

Mabelle: (view spoiler)[Don't worry, we'll be right here to help pull you through when you need it :D If you have any concerns/questions about the book, don't hesitate to let us know! Support group din ito :D (hide spoiler)]

Meliza: (view spoiler)[Hurrah! Besides A Christmas Carol, ATO2C is my next "official" Dickens novel. I've read it nearly 3 years ago, but its story has left its mark on me even today. I hope it will be a great classic read for you, too. :) (hide spoiler)]

Tin (& Ycel): (view spoiler)[Haha, Google is your friend! Although, haha, thanks to Ycel, I think we've got enough references for you to not even think about Googlinig anything :D Happy reading! (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Ycel: (view spoiler)[The cake quote was not from me but from Tin. But I read about it too somewhere. :D (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

MELIZA/TIN: What is hilo? Lol.

[Louize]

Ycel: (view spoiler)[
Wow, you’re the Dickens scholar in the house. You’re all set to read The Goldfinch then :)

Not yet, I hardly scratched the surface. 3 of what I mentioned were only short stories, and these I've read a long time ago. I don't know if I am ready to engage The Goldfinch either.
(hide spoiler)]

DC: (view spoiler)[
Since you've read a number of books by Dickens, have you noticed any similarities about his writing?

All 4 books were set in England. All involves poverty and children. He is a tad heavy on his social commentaries. Ideally, he uses unforgettable characters and sentimental scenes, maybe to balance all his revelations on social issues. And one can't help notice that Dickens had a set of tickle bones too.

Until now, I can still remember how affected I was with Nell's death in TOCS.
(hide spoiler)]

[Gay]

Day 1 Questions
Have you read Dickens before? If yes, how was it?
Do you have any expectations about this book? What are they?
(view spoiler)[I’ve read Christmas Carol back in 2012, and (surprisingly) I liked it. I found Scrooge to be a representation of a lot of people. I’ve started Great Expectations before but up until now, hindi ko pa rin sya matapos-tapos.
I have this tendency to slack-off in reading classics. So I just hope that I’d enjoy it the way I’ve enjoyed other classic stories and finish it on time (para lang magka-sense of achievement). XD (hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity
ATO2C is a novel about the French Revolution. To get ourselves ready for the myriad of references about this war, do share with us 3 facts about this momentous historical milestone.
(view spoiler)[1. French Revolution was a time for great divide among the Frenchmen. It showed huge discrepancy on the lifestyle among the social class.
2. Well-known and well-loved novel Les Miserables was set in this time.
3. (And I just realized how much of a loser I am. My knowledge about French Revolution is very limited. I'll do some research muna) (hide spoiler)]
:)

[Bennard]

Day 1 Questions:
(view spoiler)[

No, I haven't read any work by Dickens. I think I actually have been avoiding him because of his reputation for verbosity, a trait I abhor in writers (read: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables). My only expectations for this book is that I will be able to finish this. I already have a "Bennard: 0 - Books about The French Revolution - 1" record (read again: Les Miserables) so I can just hope that this book's comparatively short length will help me in reading it from cover to cover.
(hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity:
(view spoiler)[

1. The guillotine saw its rise to prominence during the French Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror.
2. The term "left" and "right" that is used in politics saw its origins during the French Revolution. This was due to the National Assembly being literally divided when supporters of the monarchy seated themselves to the right of the President and the supporters of the revolution to the left.
3. "Let them eat cake" is not the only famous phrase that is attributed to Marie Antoinette. Another quote attributed to her was uttered just before she was executed through the guillotine. She allegedly said: "Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose." to her executioner after she accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner. How true is this anecdote? I do not know.

Also, I have an additional trivia about the Bastille. Marquis de Sade is not the only literary prisoner to be held there because the Bastille, for a time period, also held the "Man in the Iron Mask" who was the inspiration of Alexandre Dumas for the novel of the same name. Up to now, the identity of the MitIM is still up for debate.
(hide spoiler)]

[Tin]

Ycel and DC: Will the F2F be (view spoiler)[ HERE? (hide spoiler)]
(view spoiler)[I did Google it after I wrote my answer. Haha. I plan to use Dickensian on somebody, someday. Like say: "You have that Dickensian look about you, today." To mean wretched, impoverished, haggardness...XD (hide spoiler)]

Ycel:(view spoiler)[ I really don't mind being mistaken for Meliza (hide spoiler)] <-Meliza(view spoiler)[ Gimme a cookie (or cake) XD (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Tin: (view spoiler)[Now you also want cake. (Let Tin eat cake!) Before, cookie lang. Haha! (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Louize wrote: "All 4 [Dickens] books were set in England. All involves poverty and children. He is a tad heavy on his social commentaries. Ideally, he uses unforgettable characters and sentimental scenes, maybe to balance all his revelations on social issues. And one can't help notice that Dickens had a set of tickle bones too."

Very interesting observation, Louize. I think that unforgettable characters and sentimental scenes are, indeed, his forte, and we would get some of that nature in ATO2C :)


Gay: (view spoiler)[Haha, I guess the best way to "complete" a time frame is to start as early as possible :P We'll try our best to support you in your reading, so if you get any speed bumps along the way, just holler, and we'll be there :D (hide spoiler)]

Bennard: (view spoiler)[You have NOT yet read Dickens? I find that hard to believe. Then again, Victorian writers ARE wordy. Nevertheless, I hope this book will be to your liking :) (hide spoiler)]

Tin: (view spoiler)[LOL at Dickens world. Maybe someday we can have it there, when we're not Dickensian about our budget :P (hide spoiler)]

Moreover: added noted trivia to trivia post.

[DC]

[Reading Plan Day 1-2: Book 1, Chapters 1-4]

Today is the first day of the reading plan, and so we start things off officially with the novel's famous first lines:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

(Like this quote on Goodreads here.)


We will readily admit that the first chapter is actually among the hardest to read in the book, and that's because it's already steeped with a number of references that we modern people probably don't understand, unless we're either Victorian scholars, or very well-researched.


Recommended by the Mods
Ycel & I therefore would recommend, if you're new to the classics genre, for you to actually listen to the audiobook's first chapters. (The audiobook is also on Youtube.) This will help you get a general feel about the language.

If listening to an audiobook's not your thing, there's also this "video book", wherein the video flashes the actual transcript/chapters on screen, while a narrator narrates in the background.

[DC]

Glossary: Book 1, Chapters 1-4
Us mods may not be able to answer ALL of your questions about these chapters, but we have prepped a simple glossary for you to check out if you are in need of reference-assistance.

If you need further help with the first chapters, just holler on the thread; we'll do our best to assist you :)


Click this tag for Chapter 1: (view spoiler)[

"In short, the period was so far like the present period..."
(view spoiler)[
The period invoked by the opening chapter is the late 18th century – specifically, the year 1775. The “present period” of the novel is the year 1859, when ATO2C first began serial publication.
(hide spoiler)]

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.
(view spoiler)[
In 1775, the King and Queen of France were Louis XVI (r. 1774-93) and his consort, Marie Antoinette. Both lost their lives to the guillotine.

In England, George III (r. 1760-1820) and his queen, Charlotte Sophia, were the ruling couple. Charlotte had a close friendship with Marie Antoinette although they never met face-to-face and only shared their interests via correspondence. Marie Antoinette confided in Charlotte upon the outbreak of the French Revolution. Charlotte had even organized apartments to be prepared and ready for the refugee royal family of France to occupy. After the execution of Marie Antoinette and the bloody events that followed, Charlotte was said to be shocked and overwhelmed that such a thing could happen to a kingdom, and at Britain's doorstep.

(hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.
(view spoiler)[
Mrs. Southcott was an Englishwoman who claimed to be a prophet and announced in 1813, at the age of sixty-three, that she was pregnant with the second Christ, Shiloh. The “prophetic private” in the Life Guards to whom Dickens refers predicted – in 1750, the year of Joanna Southcott’s birth – that London and Westminster would be destroyed. Dickens associates the date of the life-guardsman’s prediction with the date of Joanna Southcott’s birth, facetiously suggesting that the guardsman’s prophesy was in fact prophetic, not of the swallowing of London and Westminster, but of the birth of another prophet. Though rapidly confined to Bedlam (the London insane asylum) for his remarks, the life-guardsman’s prophecy instigated panic in London.
(hide spoiler)]

Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs.
(view spoiler)[
The Cock-lane ghost ostensibly began to disturb the residents of a house in Cock Lane, West Smithfield (in London) in the first few months of 1762 (and had thus been laid to rest slightly more than a dozen years in 1775). Its knockings and scratchings were supposed to derive from the spirit of a woman who had been murdered and was buried nearby. Though the phenomenon was ultimately exposed as a fraud, it attracted considerable popular interest.
(hide spoiler)]

Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America.
(view spoiler)[
This is in reference to the American Revolution when the United States of America was called the Thirteen Colonies. Between September 5 and October 26, 1774, the first Continental Congress of England’s American colonies met in Philadelphia; it presented a list of grievances to the English government in January of the following year. This “message” from the “British subjects in America” preceded the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the ensuing Revolutionary War.
(hide spoiler)]

France, less favored … than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it.
(view spoiler)[
France’s “sister of the shield and trident” is England, as the nation is represented by “Britannia” – a female figure in armor with a trident in one hand and a round shield (bearing the union jack) in the other. Britannia is the ancient name given by the Romans to Britain.
(hide spoiler)]

…rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees … marked by the Woodman, Fate…to make a certain moveable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history.
(view spoiler)[
The “moveable framework with a sack and knife in it” is the guillotine, named for its inventor, Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), who was active in French politics before and during the French Revolution.
(hide spoiler)]

…set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.
(view spoiler)[
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a tumbril is a little cart. In the French Revolution, these carts – originally farm-carts – were used to transport victims of the Revolution from their trials at the Conciergerie to the guillotine. Though people were guillotined in various parts of Paris during the Revolution, the most famous site of the guillotine was in the Place de la Révolution – called the Place de Louis XV previous to the Revolution, and now called the Place de la Concorde (so named as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the French Revolution).
(hide spoiler)]

…prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball…
(view spoiler)[
“Blunderbusses” are a kind of gun, described in Fairholt’s Costume in England, A History of Dress (1860) as “short hand-guns of wide bore.” There is a long argument as to the origin of this odd name, but date charts and examples of the use of the word “blunderbuss” suggest that this kind of gun was most frequently in use between the 17th and mid-19th centuries. “Shot and ball” refers to the ammunition with which blunderbusses were loaded.

(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]


Click this tag for Chapter 2-4: (view spoiler)[
The Dover road that lay … beyond the Dover mail, as it lumbered up Shooter’s Hill.
(view spoiler)[
The Dover road, 70.75 miles long, ran from London Bridge (on the Surrey side of the Thames River) to Dover. Shooter’s Hill, 8.25 miles along the Dover Road from London Bridge, is an eminence (i.e., an area of high ground) from which the city of London could be seen during the daytime; in the 18th century it was known for a mineral spring where Queen Anne herself (r. 1702-1714) was said to take the waters. At night, however, it was dangerous. The Dover Mail is a stagecoach that delivers mail and passengers from one place to another.
(hide spoiler)]

… every posting-house and ale-house …
(view spoiler)[
A posting-house was named for the post – the conveyance of letters around the country. To travel or ride post was, in one sense, to ride with the mail, and a posting-house was a kind of way station where travelers could change horses and refresh themselves in the course of a journey.
(hide spoiler)]

Wait at Dover for Ma’amselle.
(view spoiler)[
“Ma’amselle” is a phonetic and abbreviated rendering of the French word “Mademoiselle,” meaning “Miss” or young woman.
(hide spoiler)]

After that there gallop from Temple-bar …
(view spoiler)[
The messenger, Jerry Cruncher, has galloped from Temple Bar (a large gate marking the entrance to the City of London between London and Westminster). Temple Bar is a little over a mile west of London Bridge (where the Dover Road begins), so the gallop to catch the mail-coach at Shooter’s Hill would be a gallop of a little over nine miles (it’s like galloping from Mall of Asia to Trinoma).
(hide spoiler)]

“There will be a packet to Calais, tomorrow…?”
(view spoiler)[
A “packet” is short for “packet-boat,” or a “boat or vessel plying at regular intervals between two ports for the conveyance of mails, also of goods and passengers; a mail-boat.” The derivation of the word seems to relate to the progress of the mails, and especially state papers and dispatches, between England and the Continent. Mr. Lorry’s conveyance from England to France was thus the usual one in 1775, and the crossing – from Dover to Calais – was also the usual one. The distance between Dover (England) and Calais (France) – the towns closest to one another across the English Channel – was about 22 nautical miles or 8 leagues (around 40 kilometers, roughly the distance from Luneta to Sta. Rosa, Laguna). On a clear day, the coasts would be visible to one another. At present, one can shuttle between Paris and London by train via the Channel Tunnel.
Map of Dover and Calais
(hide spoiler)]

“Why, yes, of Beauvais. Like Monsieur Manette, your father, the gentleman was of Beauvais.”
(view spoiler)[
Beauvais is a cathedral town, 50 miles north of Paris, and one of the oldest towns in France, its history dating back to the time of Julius Caesar. The cathedral is a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, and would have been the largest cathedral in the world if it had been finished (Handbook to Paris and Its Environs, c. 1924).
(hide spoiler)]

“…Feelings! I have no time for them, no chance of them. I pass my whole life, miss, in turning an immense pecuniary Mangle.”
(view spoiler)[
A mangle (as it is called in the United Kingdom) or wringer (as it is called in the United States) is a mechanical laundry aid consisting of two rollers in a sturdy frame, connected by cogs and, in its home version, powered by a hand crank or electrically. While the appliance was originally used to wring water from wet laundry, today mangles are used to press or flatten sheets, tablecloths, kitchen towels, or clothing and other laundry.
Mangle
Mr. Lorry’s description of himself as employed “in turning an immense pecuniary Mangle” is in the key of his previous assertion that he is a mere “speaking machine” – a man who operates without feeling, and only according to his specified function. Mr. Lorry’s “pecuniary” mangle would presumably be employed in straightening out financial problems (obviously because he works for Tellson’s Bank).
(hide spoiler)]

A little fishing was done in the port, and a quantity of strolling about by night, and looking seaward: particularly at those times when the tide made, and was near flood. Small tradesmen, who did no business whatever, sometimes unaccountably realized large fortunes, and it was remarkable that nobody in the neighborhood could endure a lamplighter.
(view spoiler)[
The “quantity of strolling about by night” is an allusion to the number of smugglers who operated in Dover, smuggling goods – especially brandy – into England from France. Dickens’ reference to “small tradesmen, who did no business whatsoever” may allude to the smugglers’ euphemism for their business – “free trade.” The smugglers’ aversion to lamp-lighting is understandable (light compromising discretion), and it is noted that the smugglers went out to sea with their own lamps to guide boats with contraband materials on board to shore. A lamplighter, of course, was one who lit the lamps in a town. Before electric light (which did not appear in cities until the end of the 19th century), lamplighters were employed to light the street-lamps at night, and usually carried ladders (which they ascended to light the lamps). To say that someone was “like a lamplighter” was, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a tribute to his or her swiftness.

(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Also, just to note: No other questions and activities from us mods for today. Nevertheless, we'd love to hear about what you think of the first two chapters.

My own personal take on Chapters 1 & 2: (view spoiler)[I personally had to read and reread the first paragraph to understand it... Although, technically, it's not a paragraph at all, but a very, very long sentence.

I also quite enjoyed the mail post ride, really. I actually thought about the length of time it takes before compared to nowadays (to travel the same distance)... And I have to say, with all our modern conveniences, it sure can still take some time. Read: Traffic, psh. (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Reference Images: Book 1, Chapters 1-4

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England...

In England, George III (r. 1760-1820) and his queen, Charlotte Sophia, were the ruling couple.




... there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France...

In 1775, the King and Queen of France were Louis XVI (r. 1774-93) and his consort, Marie Antoinette. Both lost their lives to the guillotine.




Brittania statue:


Maps of London-France, vis-a-vis Dover, Calais, Paris:
1. (view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]
2. (view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

DC: Thanks for the maps! :D

[Miles]

Word. First paragraph/sentence is classically trippy.
Can it be considered a kilometric sentence? lol

[Ycel]

GAY: (view spoiler)[
I suppose Scrooge is right up there as one of Dickens’ most popular creations. But you’ll find some memorable characters here as well. Dickens won’t let you slack off once you reach Paris :) (hide spoiler)]

BENNY: (view spoiler)[
Thanks for being honest about your feelings for Victorian writers in general and Dickens in particular (I’m trying to be verbose here, see? Did that annoy you? LOL!)

Seriously, thanks for bringing your apprehension upfront. We’ll try to make the ride less bumpy for you.

Interesting tidbit on the leftist/rightist politics etymology, to either side I have always found myself swinging like a pendulum. And the "Man in the Iron Mask" bit made me want to see the movie again. (hide spoiler)]

TIN: (view spoiler)[
Thanks for giving me another idea on how to go broke when I visit England. So now I have to add this to the itinerary (on top of THIS).

And you shall have your cake! (view spoiler)[if you show up in the F2F :) (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

MELIZA: (view spoiler)[
Happy that you appreciate the maps. Carry on. (hide spoiler)]

MILES: (view spoiler)[
Hah. Trippy is the word. But the trip will be worth it :) (hide spoiler)]

[Veronica]

Day 1 Questions
(view spoiler)[Only the earlier ones, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. I have three versions of the last book in audio. It’s the height of my corniness that I listen to a version once the holidays come around, just to get into the spirit of things. :)

ATO2C is definitely a darker read. I know next to nothing about the French Revolution and am enjoying the history lesson. This is a more mature Dickens we’re reading and my goodness, the man’s sentences doth run on! (hide spoiler)]

Day 1 Activity
(view spoiler)[ (view spoiler)[Sorry, because I’m not familiar with this part of history, the following is spark notesy. (hide spoiler)]

1. The Storming of the Bastille is normally considered the opening volley of the French Revolution. France had been in terrible shape because of lavish expenditures by Louis XiV, primarily on foreign wars. French society under the ancien regime consisted of three estates, clergy, nobility and peasantry (translated "everyone else.") Only the third estate paid taxes, the clergy and nobility were exempt. The French Monarchy had raised money by selling titles of nobility (creating so-called "nobility of the robe") whose recipients were themselves free from paying taxes as were their heirs in perpetuity. The end result was an increasingly smaller tax base with increasingly higher taxes.

2. Louis XVI was forced to call a meeting of the three estates, the Estates General, which had not met in over 100 years to ask for an increase in taxes. The three estates each voted separately, and the first two always easily outvoted the third. When this appeared to happen again, the Third Estate fled from the meeting and formed a new government known as the National Assembly which passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It provided for equality before the law and many civil liberties. This was the birth of the French Republic. Louis XVI and his Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette, attempted to flee the country in disguise, but were caught and imprisoned. They were later beheaded for treason.

3. The revolution itself did not solve all the problems of the people, particularly the working poor known as the sans coulottes. It appeared that another revolution was at hand; but the Jacobins, a radical group in the Assembly, instituted a Directory to maintain order. The head of the Directory, Maximilien Robespierre, was determined that there would not be another revolution. Hundreds were arrested and guillotined; but eventually Robespierre lost the support of the Assembly and was himself guillotined.

And because I cannot count,

4. Incidentally, the Guillotine was developed by a committee headed by a dentist, Dr. Guillotin. It was thought to be a more humane way of execution, as close to painless as possible. It was so abused, however that Dr. Guillotin's family changed their name.

5. Subsequently, a large group of nobility marched on the Assembly, apparently ready to overthrow it. They were stopped by a "whiff of grapeshot," that is cannon fire, by a French General known as Napoleon Bonaparte, who soon took over the government and instituted the French Empire. (hide spoiler)]

[Bennard]

DC:
(view spoiler)[ I'm not really interested in reading Victorian writers. I don't know why but their era didn't hold any appeal for me. I hope that this book changes everything!
(hide spoiler)]

Ycel:
(view spoiler)[ That's why I'm thankful that I'm reading this with the book club. I'm already looking forward to this.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

RONNIE:(view spoiler)[
Excellent summary of the French Revolution, covering important points from the ancien regime to Napoleon! Thank you for going the extra mile on this one. Your notes show that you are indeed enjoying the history lesson. I did not even know that Dr. Guillotin’s family changed their name, but I am not surprised. France sure has a very bloody past, and the Paris that we know today has emerged as “a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss.”

Only the earlier ones, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol.
ATO2C actually came before Great Expectations and A Mutual Friend. These were the last 3 works that he completed.

It’s the height of my corniness that I listen to a version once the holidays come around, just to get into the spirit of things. :)
Oh, what a great idea. Now, I shall bug you for the audio because that is one Christmas tradition I will shamelessly copy :D (hide spoiler)]

[Gay]

DC: (view spoiler)[Yay to me! I'm about to start Book 2 na! Thanks for the support heehee (hide spoiler)]

YCEL: (view spoiler)[Looking forward to meet more characters from the book. I think I've always had this expectation when it comes to Dickens that his works are always great kahit 1 pa lang ang nagbabasa ng buo :) (hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

GAY: (view spoiler)[
Congratulations for surviving Book I! Books II and III are the best parts so enjoy :)

And oh, there will be more interesting characters, for sure! (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

WOW Camille! Will you be publishing your own annotated version of #ATO2C? XD

Chapters 1 & 2

(view spoiler)[
Chapter 1 is difficult! It's easy to drop this book if you're the kind of reader who reads the first few pages at a book store to determine if you should buy a book or not. I like the first sentence though, and I like how the whole chapter is used to describe that whole period and set the mood for the tales. I was surprised to find out that this first sentence is from this book because it is referenced by a lot of things (I couldn't think of any now). But I've definitely encountered it somewhere.

Chapter 2, well, I couldn't really imagine them. Were they inside the coach or walking beside it? I think I may have been disoriented after reading Chapter 1. But this is easier. Things get to start smooth here in terms of readability.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ycel]

ANGUS:(view spoiler)[
Yes, you’ve probably encountered “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” because it’s been used as titles for articles (a lot of newspaper columnists and writers manage to insert the opening lines in their work), it’s been uttered in movies, and you’ve probably heard it in songs. It is so prevalent that people who finally read the original source are (pleasantly) surprised because one realizes that it is really one of those brilliant paradoxes ever composed.

Chapter 2, well, I couldn't really imagine them. Where they inside the coach or walking beside it?
They were walking beside the coach when the chapter opens, because the hill, the harness, the mud, and the weight of the mail made the coach so heavy that the horses pulling it had already stopped three times.

I think I may have been disoriented after reading Chapter 1. But this is easier. Things get to start smooth here in terms of readability.
Yes, it’s quite a bumpy ride in the opening chapter mainly because of the historical allusions and references. Which explains the barrage of annotations.
(hide spoiler)]

[Monique]

Whoa, information overload way up there!^

My complaint about Chapters 1 & 2 (view spoiler)["complaint" agad talaga, wala munang "What I like about Chapters 1 & 2 are...", heh. (hide spoiler)] is dammit, I didn't know what a "mail" is, as in "Dover mail". I kept thinking a stationary thing (as in a mailpost) but dammit, why is it moving and why is it being drawn by horses? @.@

Now I know.
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]
Thanks to the Dover mail, the first two chapters are a helluva bumpy ride. Literally and figuratively.

[Gwaxa]

Chapters 1 & 2

(view spoiler)[
So chapter 1 was describing the situation back then, huh? I thought the story was already starting and I couldn't understand anything. I had to listen twice (I'm using the videobook) just so I can get that loooong sentence.

And "recalled to life", is it a code or something?

Oh and thanks for the Glossary. it really helped. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Monique: I also wondered about the mail. While reading the start of Chapter 2, the only mails that I know are the letter mails and chainmails. Haha! Two dictionaries after, I imagined what a Dover mail looks like. Hehe.

I also love the first sentence, by the way. :) In Chapter One, I just continued reading even though I don't understand the references and just accepted that England and France were in turmoil. Hehe! Still, thanks for the glossary.

[Tin]

Lol! Lahat pala nawindang sa mga unang chapters. I was so very glad about DC's glossary because after Chapters 1 and 2, I thought: "Mr. Charles Dickens, what the dickens are you talking about?" Blunderbusses, Cock-lane ghost, tumbrils...ano itong binabasa ko, Lewis Caroll poem? Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves....XD

Ycel:(view spoiler)[ Oh! I did not know this existed. "If you wish you can also dress in Regency Style." Haha. And they will have a Netherfield Ball on the 22nd. So cool. And tempting is ze cake! :) (hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Tin: (view spoiler)[I was quite familiar with blunderbusses because of PC shooting games and the movie Looper. Hehe! (hide spoiler)]

[DC]

Haha, glad the glossary and images are helpful, even if it can seem to be too much. We aim to please :D


Monique wrote: "My complaint about Chapters 1 & 2 [spoilers removed] is dammit, I didn't know what a "mail" is, as in "Dover mail". I kept thinking a stationary thing (as..."


Notably, if I'm not mistaken, the mailpost was used as a means of travel because it was the fastest means of transportation back then. I think that a slower means of travel was then frowned upon, since there were plenty of highwaymen about? Horsepower, no kidding :)

(Then again, think about hitching a ride with LBC/UPS/Air21. I suppose it was something like that :D)

BTW, thank you Monique for the photo of the mailpost! Check her post out to view it.

Will post up questions and activity in a bit :)

[DC]

[Reading Plan Day 3: Book 1, Chapters 5-6]

Seems like a lot of the readers have successfully gotten passed the first few chapters. Good job everybody! (Nevertheless, if you're still having a hard time, go ahead and rant about it on this thread; we don't mind :D)

Chapters 5 & 6 are, in my personal opinion, quite dramatic. Given this, our activity for today will take a dramatic turn, too :)


Day 2 Questions
1. Explain the opening lines of ATO2C in your own words. These lines: (view spoiler)[
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” (hide spoiler)]
2. What was your initial reaction to the phrase "recalled to life", and what did you first think it corresponds to, based on what you have read so far?
3. What are your thoughts about the race for the spilled wine on the streets?
4. Do you have any other thoughts about the characters, settings, and happenings that you have so far read?


Day 2 Activity
How an individual’s character is developed or destroyed in a crisis is a major theme in this novel. Tell us about a person in your life who developed character in crisis, and how this person responded to the crisis.

[DC]

Glossary & Reference Images: Book 1, Chapters 5-6

Glossary

Book 1, Chapters 5-6: (view spoiler)[
The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled.
(view spoiler)[
The Parisian suburb of Saint Antoine, located east of the (then-standing) Bastille, and oriented around the Faubourg Saint Antoine, became part of Paris in 1702. Now part of the Eleventh Arrondissement (there are twenty arrondissements – postal districts – in Paris), it was, in the 18th century and Dickens’ own time, a poor manufacturing district; it is still, as contemporary guidebooks point out, “working class … and a little scruffy.” Ever since the French Revolution, Saint Antoine has been known for its revolutionary fervor, having played a prominent part in the uprisings of 1789, 1841, and 1851.

Today, if you visit Paris, large brown paving stones chart a course through the smaller grey bricks that fan their way around Paris' Place de la Bastille. If you’re waiting for the bus on the western side of the roundabout, you might judge the brown stones to be out of place. But these markings are deliberate, tracing the precise location of the most significant monument in French history: the medieval Bastille fortress.
(hide spoiler)]


Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick.
(view spoiler)[
As Richard Maxwell points out in his edition of ATO2C, Dickens revised his original portrait of Madame Defarge to agree with the image of the citoyennes tricoteuses – the “knitting citizens” (female) of the Revolution, “notorious for their regular attendance at public executions.” In Dickens’ original conception (found in the manuscript version of ATO2C), Madame Defarge was addicted to needlework instead of knitting.
(hide spoiler)]

“How goes it, Jacques?”
(view spoiler)[
The Defarges have a large circle of friends, most of whom are called “Jacques,” a common French first name. “Jacques” is simply a code name used to conceal their true identity from strangers. The fact that the members of the “triumvirate” with whom Monsieur Defarge confers address one another as “Jacques” not only supports the impression of their collusion, but invokes the revolutionary overtones of the “Jacquerie” – a name originally used as a general term for the French peasantry (from the moniker “Jacques Bonhomme” – roughly “Goodman James” in English), but particularly applied to the individuals involved in a 14th-century peasant rebellion (1357-8) in Northern France. This rebellion might be said, as a revolt of the French poor against the aristocracy, to prefigure the Revolution of 1789. Indeed, it not only contributes to Dickens’ revolutionary vocabulary (his use of the term “Jacques”), but to the geography of his revolutionary novel: The 14th-century revolt of the Jacquerie was initiated in the area around the town of Beauvais – the birthplace of Lucie’s father, Doctor Manette.

(hide spoiler)]

(hide spoiler)]


Reference Images
Paving stones that mark the outline of the Bastille fortress, on the corner of the Place de la Bastille and the rue Sainte Antoine:



Map of Saint Antoine's location (vis-a-vis the Bastille):

[Tin]

Meliza wrote: "Tin: [spoilers removed]"(view spoiler)[ Haha! May blunderbuss sa looper? Hindi ko yan napansin ah. Busy siguro ako tumingin sa prosthetic na ilong ni JGL. At pang Mario Bros. lang ako. Haha. (hide spoiler)]

Yay, glossary! Nomnomnomnom