Book Review: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
In-depth "A Tale of Two Cities" book review and summary. Explore its powerful themes, unforgettable characters, and historical significance.
Dickens (1812-1870), was a 19th-century British writer. "A Tale of Two Cities" can be called the pinnacle of his late years.
I have read it for the nth time since I was a child. The narrative rhythm is short and fast, and it belongs to a very classic literary structure.
The characters are stereotyped, and the narrative is used to enhance the dramatic conflict.
Carton's last moment of light and the overlap of time and space at the end of the whole story are always tear-jerking.
As an adult, I read a lot about politics and society that I didn't understand when I was a child.
The Great Revolution was intended to punish evil and promote good, but why did it still kill innocent people?
It was the worst and best of times.
The sustainability of revolution, the realization of political ideals, the blind impulse and irrationality of the masses, the good and evil of human nature, the anxiety between personal feelings and justice, and the relativity of justice are all topics touched upon.
Book: A Tale of Two Cities
- Author: Charles Dickens
- Publishing Year: 2015-8
- Pages: 432
- Binding: Paperback
- Series: World Literature Famous
Understanding A Tale of Two Cities: Key Insights
- Main Message: A Tale of Two Cities explores themes of resurrection, sacrifice, and the struggle for justice. It contrasts the lives of characters in London and Paris during the French Revolution, highlighting social injustice.
- Difficulty Level: Many readers find A Tale of Two Cities challenging due to its historical context and complex characters. However, its engaging narrative can make it accessible with patience.
- Fame Factors: The novel's fame stems from its memorable characters, dramatic plot, and exploration of revolutionary themes. Its opening line is iconic, capturing attention instantly.
This timeless work remains relevant today for its insights into human nature and society.
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| A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens |
Excerpts from the original text:
That is the best time, that is the worst time; that is the year of wisdom, that is the year of ignorance; that is the time of faith, that is the time of doubt; that is the season of light, that is the season of darkness; It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of disappointment; we all went straight to heaven, we all went straight in the opposite direction.—— Quoted from page 8
About the Author: The Life and Works of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was a prominent English novelist born on February 7, 1812. He is best known for his impactful novels, including "A Christmas Carol," "Oliver Twist," and "Great Expectations."
These works highlight social issues and the struggles of children. Dickens's storytelling captivated readers, making him a beloved figure in literature.
His famous quote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," from "A Tale of Two Cities," reflects his keen observation of society.
Dickens wrote 15 novels and numerous short stories throughout his career. His works often featured memorable characters and vivid settings that brought Victorian England to life.
He also campaigned for social reform, focusing on children's rights and education. Sadly, Dickens died on June 9, 1870, due to a stroke, leaving behind a rich literary legacy.
Today, his books continue to inspire movies and adaptations, showcasing the timeless nature of his stories. The Charles Dickens Museum in London celebrates his life and contributions to literature.
His influence remains significant in both literature and popular culture, making him a central figure in English literary history.
Book Review
The beginning of "A Tale of Two Cities" is a famous saying: "That was the best time, that was the worst time; that was a wise time, that was an ignorant year; that was a time of full confidence, and that was full of doubts. Period... We are all going straight to heaven, all of us are going straight to hell."
This passage has been widely circulated and has long transcended national boundaries. However, what kind of scene is the coexistence of good and bad? I understand that "ignorance, doubts, darkness, despair, and nothing..." If Dickens felt that "the era is so similar to this era," I feel more empathetic to the miserable end.
Every day when the news is opened, anger and sorrow are permeated from the report to the reader's reaction-and most of it is anger. People express their hearts in violent language as if they don't have the slightest hope for the possibility of communication.
The deceived believe that heaven belongs to powerful people; if you don’t know it, there is also darkness. Too much news suffocates me.
After reading the novel, I found another sentence at the end, which is much less well-known: "What I have done now is far better than everything I have done; I will get far more rest than I know."
It's all sweet."-What kind of confidence is needed to say "I have done better than everything I have done" in this era, and what kind of hope is needed to face an unknown rest?
Dickens described that on the eve of the French Revolution, Britain and France were shrouded in the dusk of the fog. In Britain, people left home and had to send furniture to the furniture store's warehouse for safekeeping.
In the daytime, they were ordinary merchants doing business, but at night they became roadblocks The robber; the heinous murderer and the thief who stole 6 pence also received capital punishment.
France is even more terrible. The rulers and the church are extremely corrupt, and the hatred between people is filling all corners of the society like poison gas, and terror is brewing rapidly.
In Hugo's writing, all this is the darkness before dawn—for the dawn, the blood and tears in the night can be ignored.
There are always too many people who are enemies, and friends, friends are just vacant seats, you dare not say who can sit on it next moment, you are not even sure about yourself.
Under this pressure, many writers can hardly escape the temptation to write about revolution, because injustice is so obvious that there is no way out for the powerful and the powerless. The story Dickens wants to tell is revenge for blood or annihilation, his Tale of Two Cities.
At first, I thought that the twin cities only referred to Paris and London, but soon, some small people, insignificant but concrete, took to the stage. They tore off the label of the twin cities and blurred the line between Paris and London.
In Paris, we met some people in ragged clothes who seemed idle. They were all called "Jacques." They gathered in small hotels and didn't know what was brewing. The hotel owner, Defa Day, was busy, but not for business. Mrs. Defari did the knitting work without raising her eyes.
However, she knew everything about secrets and bloody things and participated in everything. Her face was like a rock, and even men felt chilled when they saw her.
This city, on the one hand, is a nobleman who lives extravagantly on the bones of the poor. Their carriage drove through the market, hitting people to death and leaving a little money away; on the other hand, there are the abject poor people in the dark of the future; and there are these. "Jacques", they sneaked into the mansion of the adults at night and killed one. Mrs. Defari crossed out a person's name from the knitting "record" in her hand knowing to cross out the name or life of the person, Which is easier and which is more difficult.
The revolutionaries described by Dickens are not abstract. Most of them are the perpetrators transformed by the sufferers.
At first, perhaps out of fear or hatred, they all abandoned their family names for the sake of "justice" and put on the coat of "Jacques" like an executioner.
For Dickens, no matter what the reason for the revolution, the essence of the revolution remains unchanged, that is, taking human life, the cause is blood, the result is blood, and one city in the twin cities stands up from blood in this way. So where is the other city?
Different from the banner-style presentation of Paris, Dickens described the violent scene of the sea. He turned his eyes and fixed his eyes on an inconspicuous boat among the waves: here is a French doctor Manette who has been in jail for 18 years. After prison, she was taken to London by her friend and daughter Lucy but suffered from mental illness.
Lucy lost her parents at this young age. Her husband Dane is a descendant of a French nobleman. He was incognito because he felt that the aristocracy was an injustice to the poor, but still twice. Sentenced to death.
Who are the people in this boat? Some suffering people are just like that city. I don't know why, but these people who have the same hatred of the country and family have not been drawn into the whirlpool of that city-they have no ambitions, they just want to accompany each other and live a peaceful life.
However, the harshness of an era means that no matter whether you want to parry or not, there will always be some killers to chase from behind. When Dany got into the lawsuit for the first time, it was a man of his age who helped him win the lawsuit, even his appearance.
This man is called Caton, alcoholic, self-deprecating, eccentric self-loathing. He was willing to give an untalented lawyer the right moment, but because of his alcohol addiction and refusal to greet him, he repeatedly wasted his years, but he suffered from it.
There are several movie versions of Tale of Two Cities. I found that no matter which version Caton is the number one male and is loved by female audiences, I suspect that he was mostly filmed as a late-blooming hero. In the book, everything is for expression. contradiction.
Caton indeed looks handsome, but this appearance has been worn down by alcohol and long-term self-opposition; he is not so talented, and it is more shameful than touching because he is unable to fight but will cry secretly; he is very much to Lucy Affectionate, he confessed, not to win love but to declare hopelessness, and asked for mercy:
"When you see a beautiful baby like you jumping around your knees, I hope you can sometimes remember that there is such a person in the world, To save the life of the person you love, he is willing to sacrifice his life!"
In real life, people like Caton have no aura, because most people are afraid and hate the incompetent who loses their fighting spirit, like his superiors. Yang Yang said to him: "Look at how I did it before? How do I do it now? Your way of life is always bad."
Dickens used many foreshadowings to describe this clue and sometimes shelved it temporarily, which prevented me from connecting it to what happened in Paris for a long time. I don't understand why he wrote about the trivial life of such a group of people.
In the atmosphere of the Revolution, the small family and the small group always have difficulty standing up because "a British man's home is his fortress" has lost its legitimacy. What is legal? At first, it seemed righteous.
Mrs. Defari grew up as a nemesis and revolutionary leader, not because of anything else, but because her family died tragically at the hands of the Marquis.
She does have a reason to hate, but is there any reason for her determination to wipe out their family? She deduced from her experience that all hostile classes should die.
Is there any reason? In the end, things have grown to the point that anyone who opposes the revolution or even disagrees with her, has to lose their heads. What about this weird justice?
"Since she was a child, she has been wronged and has a deep hatred of the hostile class. When the time comes, she gradually becomes a tigress.
She has no compassion." Dickens said that many women are influenced by the trends of the times. , "Horribly changed." I have to say that the novelists at that time were still ambitious and dared to tackle difficult problems.
In Hugo's opinion, the people of the great revolution stood up, although in "Les Miserables", it is quite ambiguous who are the "people".
If the privileged class is unworthy of being a people because of their sins, then must the oppressed have clean hands? Who gives one person the right to deprive another person of life? As soon as the "Jacques" turned into a large group, they had strength with the guillotine. Are these new perpetrators who have grown up in a pool of blood, are they still the people?
Hugo regarded the revolution as a force to sweep the darkness, and in Dickens's writings, the Great Revolution was one of "the human imagination created countlessly insatiable and unsatisfied monsters". The symbol of the Great Revolution is the guillotine.
The interesting thing is, yes. Dickens did not expand the discussion but just said lightly: "It replaced the cross." cross.
This is another tradition they have used to fight against the guillotine for more than 1,700 years. This tradition originated from a man who is said to have never been involved in sin and has never wronged anyone.
To prove that love does not count as human evil, and life is better than death-he does not hesitate to suffer poverty, humiliation, humiliation, and death, and he is hung on the cross without complaint.
If he wanted to collect debts, all those who stood under the cross He was not immune, but before he died, he only said one sentence: "Father forgive them because they don't know what they have done." Hugo mentioned Jesus as if he was a hero, a kind of noble.
The incarnation of the spirit inspires more people to win glory with their own efforts; Dickens mentioned that Jesus always died for a person when someone was heartbroken or someone was about to die, and he was resurrected, and he became countless people who were about to die.
The comfort and hope in people's hearts. Dickens insisted on this belief in all his novels and used it to break the impenetrable world of the iron barrel.
As a result, the originally hidden line was suddenly highlighted: Dane returned to Paris when he was most dangerous and was sentenced to death to save the butler who was persecuted for serving their home.
Manette and Lucy, together with their servants and a group of five people did not hesitate to follow France and share the troubles with Dane. Carton also came to Paris for Lucy's sake.
This boat looks fragile and has no resistance in the face of the violence that is about to press down. It is like a cart, a big dog, and a big guillotine that are used to resist the old men.
It is also like today's old men turned into a guillotine. A piece of grass. What can a group of people without force do? Dickens mentioned again that Caton and Dane look very similar, and Caton seems to be an unscrupulous version of Dane.
This information is trembling. How can an unarmed person save another who is bound to die? Yes, one kind of death is substituted for another kind of death.
At this point, I suddenly felt that Dickens suppressed hope so low in the first half of the story, just to bring it up at the last moment. It challenges humanity.
Why did Carton die for Dane? This person is so similar to him but far better than him in everything. Why did Carton die for Dane? Dane is dead, maybe Lucy will become his one day.
We can easily understand the ideas of revolution, but it is difficult to realize sacrifice. Caton decided to die in place of Dane because he loved Lucy, he chose to love what she loved.
He secretly arranged plans to provide the most comprehensive protection for the boat to go to safety.
He used the ingenuity rescued from alcohol and regret to make it serve love for the last time. Dane didn’t know all of this.
He said to Lucy, “I want to give my love a farewell blessing. We will meet again where the needy can rest!” On the other side, the servant of Manet’s house To prevent Mrs. Defari from catching up with the doctor's family, Miss Pross had a desperate fight with her. Dickens told her: "Love is always more powerful than hate."
What about Caton? What did he get for this lonely man who went to death? "Jesus said that the resurrection is with me, and the life is with me. Those who believe in me will be resurrected even though they die.
Whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Before Caton was imprisoned, he encountered a misjudgment by the Revolutionary Committee. Poor tailor. They accompany each other like passengers who have been seated, towards the end. She told him:
"Dear stranger, without you, I would not have been so calm, because I was born a poor little person, very timid... Thinking of the executed Lord makes us still pregnant here today.
Hope and comfort. I think you were given to me by heaven." These are the sources of courage that people in the boat used to resist wind and waves.
They don't want to die. If they can, they wish they could spend this journey peacefully together. However, they are not afraid if they are really going to die, because they believe that suffering and death are not the whole thing.
There is a truly beautiful country waiting at the end of the world, and that is the eternal hometown. They don't need to snatch and sweep anyone from their front to get there. As long as they love each other, they can say with confidence:
"What I have done now is far better than everything I have done; the rest I will get is far sweeter than everything I know."
Just about Carton (unforgettable characters)
I just want to talk about Carton, he is the only character I love deeply in the whole novel. Of course, I believe that there are many other readers with masochistic tendencies, inferiority complexes, and Platonic complexes who love him.
Dickens himself must have favored him, so he took great pains to describe him. Most of the characters in "A Tale of Two Cities" are relatively simple, and they are clear at a glance from the moment they appear: Lucy is gentle and virtuous; Dr. Manette is vicissitudes and forbearance; Mr. Lorry is mature, prudent, shrewd and meticulous; Charles is upright, noble and confident... There is no detour as if they are all the roles in Peking Opera.
In contrast, Carton seems to be a fog. In the tense Old Bailey Court, when his careless face first appeared, he was out of tune with everything around him.
He acted lazy, indulgent, indifferent to others, and did not need to care. The subsequent plot explains that he is actually a dedicated and excellent lawyer, and he cares about people. As for alcoholism, he can drink a lot, but for a lawyer who can handle complex cases all night after drinking, it is more appropriate to say that he has a "huge capacity".
Don't forget that he is also beautiful.
The strange thing is that he always seems to be shrouded in a shadow of melancholy, like an old wall under which he stands alone when others celebrate. He has no intention of shaking off this shadow, but always relies on its protection.
Dickens said:
"He is a very talented and emotional person, but he cannot use that talent and emotion to gain happiness for himself. He knows the harm, but lets it go and wastes himself."
The novel does not explain what constitutes his character, nor does it need to explain. This inferiority complex may be innate. He believes that he is neither worthy of success nor worthy of being loved. He just wants to shrink in that small shadow, always safe and protecting the safety of others.
He was talented, but he only worked as a "jackal" for the useless lawyer Stryver; he loved Lucy and was not afraid of going to the guillotine for her husband, but he was afraid that he would "make her suffer, sad, and regret, and would defile her, humiliate her, and drag her down with him."
Dickens praised this struggling, noble, and beautiful soul with compassionate sarcasm. The only time he combined his talent and affection was when he perfectly planned how to die for his rival. These two were the best gifts that mortals could hope for, but they sent him to death.
Love is like an oak seed planted in a delicate porcelain vase. Carton hid his love for Lucy deep in his heart. When he was in pain, he wandered around Soho Street all night, but even when he confessed to her, he did not have a trace of hope. That confession was not so much a "courtship" as a breakdown caused by love. His
self-abuse life really makes people angry - why bother to humiliate yourself and die for someone who doesn't love you at all? We, like him, don’t even know Lucy’s specific reaction (although we know that their descendants will praise Carton), only Carton’s fantasy before his execution:
“I saw the child named after me lying in her arms grow up... I saw him bring another child named after me here...”
That’s what you think.
However, he used his life to paint a magnificent fantasy for himself, firmly believing that he had done something memorable this time, so his life was no longer “a string of heavy curses”. “Death” became his real “life”.
Maybe love is just the support and strength that resides in a person’s heart, regardless of return, what matters is the satisfaction of giving to the loved one.
Book Summary
Dickens found it difficult to accept the social turmoil and suffering brought about by the violent revolution.
In A Tale of Two Cities, he described the blindness and madness of the French Revolution in great detail and projected this radical attitude of extreme hatred, irrationality, and lack of political foresight onto Madame Defarge.
The persecution of the lower classes by the French feudal aristocracy and the violent revenge of the lower-class revolutionaries were two mirrors that Dickens held up for Britain, and he hoped to use them to give some insights and warnings to the British rulers.
However, Dickens's idea of humanitarian salvation was indeed somewhat fanciful.
Using self-sacrifice to eliminate hatred and using reformism to improve society.
This was certainly beautiful, but it lacked realistic soil, and ultimately could only fall into the behavior pattern of "repaying evil with virtue", which was not beneficial to improving society, and it was difficult to truly save the lower-class people.
When faced with sharp class contradictions, it was like scratching an itch through a shoe, which made people see no hope.
But I like Dickens very much. His thoughts and the kindness, generosity, mercy, and selflessness that he always valued made him shine.
This novel traces the private lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror.
My Thoughts After Reading
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities has been quoted countless times.
But I guess those who know this sentence don't know what kind of story the novel "A Tale of Two Cities" tells, nor do they know why this sentence was said.
If you want to understand the original meaning of this sentence and why this classic sentence was written, you naturally have to read the original work.
"---In short, that era was so similar to this era." This sentence actually explains two problems of the above classic sentence: why it is said, and to whom it is said. This is one of the reasons why the novel was born.
Dickens hopes to express his concerns through such a novel by describing the disaster brought to the masses by the French Revolution, and at the same time warn Britain of its dangerous situation.
A revolutionary history, two cities representing two countries, and several people in the storm constitute the main elements of the novel.
Although "A Tale of Two Cities" is a classic novel, because it clearly states that the background of this revolution is the French Revolution, the expression of the revolution is considered to be the author's historical view. And this is the focus of countless controversies about the novel.
In addition to showing the cruelty of the nobles with delicate writing in the novel, Dickens also shows the irrational destruction of the revolutionary masses.
He believed that revolution was a kind of oppression replacing another kind of oppression, and a direct and intense bloody riot replacing another kind of blood.
The most eye-catching part of the novel is the series of descriptions of the capture of the Bastille and the rioting people - bloody, cruel, cunning, and vicious.
Dickens devoted a lot of time to describing the evil of the mob, showing his hatred for the mob, which can be said to be hatred of the revolution to a certain extent. Of course, as a humanitarian, Dickens also pointed out the panacea to save the world: love.
This kind of love, reflected in the novel, includes personal feelings such as family affection, love, and friendship, as well as the kind of fraternity that abandons the nobility and saves the people. Among them, the most outstanding is the description of Carton's love.
I like Carton very much. In fact, Carton is the incarnation of Dickens. Dickens first thought of Carton and a certain spirit in him and then conceived this novel.
So, what kind of person is Carton? The novel describes: "The sun rises sadly, and the scenery it illuminates is no more miserable than this man.
He is talented and has noble emotions, but he has no chance to display his talents and express his emotions. He cannot do anything and is unable to seek his own happiness.
He knows his own problems, but he resigns himself to fate and allows himself to waste his time year after year and consume it."
This is a young man who indulges in depravity and obliterates his talent and youth. Why did he indulge in depravity? The novel does not seem to explain that he has been like this since he appeared, and there is not much description of his family background.
Personally, I think this person represents Dickens himself, so he does not need to be described too much - Carton's depravity stems from his disappointment with the increasingly decadent society.
Before he went to the guillotine, he said, "I see the evil of this age, and the evil of the previous age that caused this evil, gradually redeeming their sins and dying."
Carton, the pessimist abandoned by himself, suddenly appeared when his friend was in trouble and the husband of the woman he loved was about to be sent to the guillotine.
At the cost of his own life, he used a substitution strategy to save the husband of the woman he loved at the critical moment.
Isn't this the love of Christ, redeeming his sins and dying. In fact, Carton in the novel did say in the tone of the Bible before he died, "Resurrection is in me, life is in me, those who believe in me will live, though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
This is the good medicine Dickens prescribed for the "worst times", but it is an ideal after all.
Some people say that "A Tale of Two Cities", as an immortal work, would lose its value and glory without the existence and deeds of Sidney Carton. I completely agree.
