A Tale of Two Cities in Should have read classics

Jun 21, 2012 Feliks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: brit-lit-classic, favorites-all-time

Even among my all-time top 15-20 novels; this work assumes narrow company at the very apex--vying with perhaps only two other books--for ultimate honor. Its in elite company, as prose novels go. 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'Bleak House' --both by Dickens--are arguably the two finest English novels of their century. But, 'Tale' alone--could still be nominated as the best novel of our century. It still speaks as directly and powerfully to the reader now, as it must have done then.

There are other gr Even among my all-time top 15-20 novels; this work assumes narrow company at the very apex--vying with perhaps only two other books--for ultimate honor. Its in elite company, as prose novels go. 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'Bleak House' --both by Dickens--are arguably the two finest English novels of their century. But, 'Tale' alone--could still be nominated as the best novel of our century. It still speaks as directly and powerfully to the reader now, as it must have done then.

There are other great novels nearly of this same caliber I could reaily name--from Tolstoy, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Balzac, for example--but none I can name which are as enjoyable as they are instructive. For an English reader, home must lie with Dickens.

Looking through other reviews for 'Tale'; its startling and amusing to see how many people talk of how 'challenging' or 'tedious' they found it.

Pah. Slow? Demanding? Not at all. For myself, its a book to glide through as if on skates. I usually schloss down it so fast I have to pace myself to savor it slowly; restraining my greedy appetite for its lush paragraphs; tempering my thirst for the finesse and command of language; for the audacious characters; and for all the separate and individual story-strands which join together so satisfyingly at the end.

Its one of the few books I can return to read every few years with no flagging of excitement and passion for turning its pages. Re-reads never dull the saga, but allow one to appreciate it in a deeper way, on every new occasion. Force me to relinquish the other 19 novels on my top-20 list? Fine. This is one that I would insist on retaining.

I would say to its detractors that frankly..its not supposed to be easy. As Nabokov said in his lecture on 'Bleak House' (and I'm paraphrasing) its a book which you must step up to; rise to meet; ramp your acumen up to in order to enjoy fully. You've just got to be better as a reader, that's all; its certainly not the fault of Dickens that you're struggling with his high level of writing.

I don't doubt that every year of new-cellphones and new video-games that less and less people will push themselves to master the challenge of books as sober, mature, and robust as this.

But 'A Tale of Two Cities' is as good as the English language gets; and that's saying something. You can't txt it; you can't jpg it; you can't Tweet it; you can't update its status on Facebook; cloud computing can't touch it. Its a milestone in humane sensibility.
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May 01, 2013 Mickey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I think this is one of Dickens's best novels. That's ironic because I have avoided reading this particular book for so long because of its reputation as not one of his better novels. This book definitely suffers from its place in the public consciousness as the uncharacteristically dry, humorless book that is too often foisted on high school students. Its opening is often spoofed in a way to accent its ponderousness and pretentiousness so often that by the time someone is ready to read the book, ...more

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