Dickens made a believer out of me.

books:

	• Tale of Two Cities (Running Press Classics) Charles Dickens Running Press Book Publishers, 1986 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 380 reviews
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highly recommended

Dickens made a believer out of me.

Dickens does a superb job in conveying how insensitivity of careless brute can meet pitiless vengence.

Epic tale of the Human Spirit

Was Charles Dickens a poet? Conversely, perhaps his structure and style are no longer suited to today's rushed lifestyle, as some reviewers lament. I believe Dickens is one of the most magnificent story tellers ever to put pen to paper, portraying vivid landscapes that are often as vital as his characters in affecting events. Dickens, like Shakespeare, could never be told in TV length segments, or using today's best seller pablum.

'A Tale of Two Cities' is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. The prose is lyrical, the story telling awe inspiring, the tale simply unforgettable. It left a mark on my soul.

I remember my first reading of Shakespeare, and stumbling hopelessly through the pentameter and 'backward' structure. Thankfully a wonderful metamorphosis occurred and somewhere along the way I realized my mind had assimilated both meter and verse, and my unconscious brain was giddy with the beauty of it. I experience Dickens the same way. His unfamiliar style blends into the rich tapestry of his work, adding a depth and clarity that is difficult to imagine without it. And like Shakespeare, we are most assuredly on a journey of wondrous descriptive and emotional insight.

'A Tale of Two Cities' is a definitive description of the French Revolution, although it is a work of fiction. Dickens intricately weaves these momentous, earth shattering events through the lives of a small chorus of individuals, all hoping to cope with a world threatening to devour them at any moment. His strength in describing how each acts within such tumultuous times creates a fantastic story all its own. But Dickens is only getting started. In his own ingeniously inevitable style, he compels events and characters together in a climax of towering suspense. With a courageous act of human spirit our true hero takes center stage as he equals the desperate call that only rebellion and war can advance.

Through it all, Dickens remains himself; constructing beautifully intricate foundations, dropping seemingly innocuous small details in the midst of sub chapters which at the time are much more important, slowly composing the story with the sense of a trickle of a stream leading to the river and the rapids and the waterfall, gaining an urgency and crescendo until the sound and the fury of the story becomes a palpable beating in one's chest. Is the book a love story? Is it historical fiction? Is it the tale of rabid crowds taking over noble causes? Is it man vs. nature, or a story of a man who rises to his destiny? Yes, it is.

"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."

With arguably the most famous first sentence of a book in all of literature, I shall leave you with one more thought if you are not sure if you like Dickens. Or perhaps you already tried to read him and felt unconnected; but perhaps you were too young then, or too busy, or distracted. And perhaps you're ready now, to leave everything behind, to curl up in a chair, preferably with a warm fire and a glass of wine, and rediscover him. Read `A Tale of Two Cities' when you are ready, with an open heart. Dickens will inspire you to song and tears. For I assure you, that somewhere along the way, you will make a start, or you will stand up and stretch, and you will realize that he has somehow profoundly altered your view, and that you will never really be quite the same again. And you will cherish him, as I do, and the beauty with which he writes, and his faith, win or lose, of the human spirit to endure all else.

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A Tale of Two Cities

is really a wonderful book, and I enjoyed it immensely. So immensely, in fact, that I immediately searched for an appropriate edition that would do the book justice, and I am glad to announce that I have found it. If you are to purchase a copy of this great book, get the one that is published by Vintage Classics. Not only does this book have a wonderful, colored illustration of a certain character (readers who have read this book know who), the cover and pages are thick and durable, not to mention acid-free (many publishers like Penguins do not use acid-free paper). Also, the binding is thick and very sturdy, and the font is of a comfortable size, unlike the mass-paperback editions. This book can make a wonderful gift to someone special, or a wonderful gift to oneself. In either case, it is best to keep in mind that this edition is really the best to get of this tale.

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Relevant and Interesting

This classic story by Charles Dickens makes many allusions to history during the French Revolution. The characters are laden with emotion, and the book makes for excellent reading. The only peeves of mine are that the language is a bit difficult for some, and several of the characters don't show any personality; in their dialogue, you can't make out what they are feeling, specifically Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

It's time to rediscover the wonderful books we all cherish.

First published in 1859, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens's most famous and popular novels. This stirring tale, set in the late eighteenth century against the backdrop of the French Revolution, is a novel for all generations. Filled with adventure and love, revolution and terror, it transports the reader to a time of political upheaval and solutions by guillotine.

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