Friday, October 9, 2009

The One with "A Tale of Two Cities" Review!!!

   That's right, I finished  "A Tale of Two Cities"!!!


  • Personal Status:  Thrilled that I finshed "A Tale of Two Cities" and although by looking through my blog archives, it appears that it took me a week to complete it...I still finished a day early....accoring to my calculations (which I methodically worked-out so that all throughout the remainder of this year, I'll always know if I'm ahead or behind or on track!)  If it hasn't yet been established that I'm a big nerd.....you know now!  Victory is mine!  Not that "A Tale of Two Cities" is a very long book...but it's the longest book I've read in this challenge so far, and @ 520 pages (including the Afterword, which I read & quite enjoyed)....that's not bad....it's also a small copy with very small print!  As I completed it just before midnight on Thursday, I'm starting Day 8's blog with the review...............
  • A TALE OF TWO CITIES!!!  by Charles Dickens
    • Book The First  Recalled To Life
      • "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-"  One of the most notable & quotable first paragraphs in literary history....sucks you right in!
      • So....the novel's a work of fiction with historical references to The French Revolution....and the 2 cities are London, England & Paris, France...
      • (I will not be explaining everything that happens with spoilers...mostly I will note portions I highlighted that are worth blogging!)
      • "...long yielded to the calm that must follow all storms- emblem to humanity, of the rest and silence into which the storm called Life must hush at last -they came forward to raise the father and daughter from the ground."  And the Father-Daughter pair in this great work of Dickens' are a wonder to behold....
    • Book the Second is themed  The Golden Thread  hence the following quote from chapter 4, "She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery; and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always."  By the Father, Dr. Mannette of his daughter, Lucie....
        • "Those were drinking days, and most men drank hard."  Chapter 5
        •  "...but France in all such things is changed for the worse." 
        • "In this age, he would have been a professor; in that age, he was a tutor."
        • Hilarious line that I will use the next time someone asks me a question early in the morning..."I am not going to guess, at five o'clock in the morning, with my brains frying and sputtering in my head.  If you want me to guess, you must ask me to dinner."  Chapter 11
        • "And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire - a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away."
        • "'and what the tongue is, I suppose the man is."  Ha, ha!
      • Book the Third  The Track of a Storm   
        • "Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope."  
        • ", he was a man apart."  Question is...did Dickens' coin that phrase?
        • "In short, this is a desperate time, when desperate games are played for desperate stakes...Anyone carried home by the people today, may be condemned tomorrow."
        • "I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out."

      • I enjoyed this novel more than I expected I would....great 1st Classic of the Challenge to have completed under my belt........Goodnight!

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