A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

 

I'm not going to lie, this one was hard to get through! But I finished it! Honestly, at first I thought I was going to have to set it aside, but I truly wanted to finish what I had started. I had a hard time grasping what was happening at the beginning of the book. I'd think oh, I see, and then I'd be lost again. I even resorted to reading different synopses on the book so I could get a better handle on what was happening. By the end, which was sad and yet kind of beautiful, I grasped more of what was going on. What I am finding as I read these classics is that the writers of those time periods wrote characters that were very passionate and not afraid to show that passion to others. In this story Lucie shows her love and affection for her father who had been a prisoner for years. Lucie is portrayed as the perfect daughter and wife, almost a saint! The story takes place during the French Revolution. Admittedly I do not remember studying about this and had no clue what it was about. But once I read up on what the book was about things began to make sense. By the end I was following along nicely. The end...Oh my goodness. I even had a couple of stressful moments! The story was of love, vengeance, and self-sacrificing. I'm sure so much more, but this was my uneducated take on it. 

Two of the most famous quotes lines that most people recognize were the first lines of the book and the last lines of the book:

"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"

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

Such a sad ending, yet a noble ending for one character. 

This is the fourth book I have read mentioned in the book On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior. A Tale of Two Cities is in the chapter JUSTICE. A couple of quotes from that chapter:

"When the justice system becomes a form of entertainment, it surely is unjust."

"But excessive anger distorts justice, turning it into vengeance."

"It is not mere injustice that brought about the Revolution, but excessive, inhumane, and prolonged injustice."

"The novel's vision exposes the truth that prolonged systematic injustice inevitably bears the bitter fruit of violence."

A Tale of Two Cities is marked for reading by the grades 5th through 12th. I totally couldn't see any of those ages picking up this book and becoming engrossed in it. As I said at the beginning, I had a hard time trying to figure out what was going on and I'm a reader of classics and other literature. But, it might have been easier to understand if there had been a discussion group or class setting to hash out everything that was going on, so maybe, just maybe those grades might find the book interesting in those settings. 

Now for some lighter reading before I start the next book...