A Tale of Two Cities - Part 1

A Tale of Two Cities

The book I've decided to start with is "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. The only reason I picked this one first is that my friend (the Ganache Queen) lent it to me a while ago and I feel I should read it so I can finally give it back to her. Since having to read "Great Expectations" in high school, I really have had no desire to read anything else that Dickens wrote, but she says this is her favorite book, so I will trust her and try to read it. I know that when I was reading the book that is now my favorite ("Jane Eyre") I almost put it down halfway through because I was so bored . . .classics will do that to you. But by the time I got to the end, I was crying while I read the ending, so I'm very glad I persevered. Hopefully this one won't be quite the same, but I won't hold my breath.

To start with, I skipped the introduction, because if you haven't read the book before, the writer is fairly certain to have included plenty of spoilers in it. I did read the preface however, and was confronted with many questions. First of all, who is this Lord John Russell that the book is dedicated to? Answer: A man who was an English Liberal politician and served two terms as the Prime Minister of the UK in the middle of the 19th century. His home, Pembroke Lodge, is interestingly only about 4 miles from where I lived when I studied abroad in England :) Dickens dedicated the book to him, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses" . . .it really makes me wonder what happened between them, because I think someone has to be pretty special to you for you to dedicate a book to them, especially one as epic as "A Tale of Two Cities".

Dickens also refers to "Mr. Carlyle's wonderful book" . . .I had no idea what book that was, so I looked it up. It was "The French Revolution" written by Thomas Carlyle, published in 1837. I guess Dickens used it as a reference for much of the information in his book. At any rate, hearing all of this about the French Revolution started the Les Miserables music playing in my mind and reading the language of the preface got me into the "classical" mindset. I guess it's time to dive into the book.