A Tale of Two Cities Book Review

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first Charles Dickens book that I've ever read so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from it. For some reason, I had the impression that it would be a rather serious tale with a lot of depth. It turned out that wasn't really the case. There are some very serious themes in the story – oppression of the poor, horrors of the French Revolution, etc. - but for the most part it's just an entertaining read. I will admit that, due to my erroneous expectations, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I could have early on, but I certainly enjoyed it more and more as I got further into it.

The story is basically about the intertwining lives of some people from London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution. There's mystery, action, drama, and suspense - everything a fun, entertaining read needs. Dickens crafted a very solid story, I don't think there's a single character in the entire story who isn't linked to someone else. Even the most seemingly minor characters pop up later on in some pivotal role, which is pretty neat.

As I'm sure most people know, Dickens tales were serialized, giving them a somewhat unique feel to the rising actions, climaxes, etc. The edition that I have shows where each installment ended and you can definitely tell how Dickens would create little climaxes and cliffhangers at the end of each installment. Since Dickens, of course, would want to keep his readers buying all the issues until the very last one, the story can feel a bit slow at times. It's pretty easy to guess what's going to happen at the end once you start getting closer to it, but the story keeps throwing new things at you till the very last chapter. Even though this gave the book an odd pacing (it would have been great to read this when it was first serialized!), and not everything is revealed till the very end, I wasn't very bothered by it and it ended exceptionally well.

So even though my expectations coming into the book were a bit off, I did end up enjoying it quite a bit. The language takes a little while to get used to, but once you do, it flows quite well. If you're in the mood for something fun and entertaining, this will definitely hit the spot.



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