Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - A Tale of Two Cities

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, George Woodcock

12 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your life. This is book twenty-five on the poster. As with most classics, I kind of struggled with this, but I understood the storyline this time.

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. These are the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, becomes enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

I enjoyed how this book was split into three stories with one side being in France, one being in England and then book three being where all hell breaks loose. I enjoyed the humour and the side characters within this book. They were all so interesting and managed to keep me hooked. Even though it’s got a lot of dark themes, I was also intrigued into the mystery whether the characters were going to survive. The character development between the main characters was another strong point, I went from questioning if these two were even going to be able to get out of the town and by the end they were so badass. I have read two books from Charles Dickens, he seems to have this way of making a journey from start to finish, there was no questions for me to ask, everything was wrapped up in a bow.

Even though this book was under 300 pages, it felt like it was 900 pages. I am going to assume it’s because of the language and the classic feel to it, but it felt like pulling teeth to get this book finished. Plus, with the obvious political tone and the representation of all female characters being in the kitchen or just staying at home, was driving me nuts but again it was the time when the book was written.

Overall, I was surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did due to how I do with classics, however I'm not going to have my hopes up because the next one on the list is Crime and Punishment.

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uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

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helenafaustina's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed this! I think it’s underrated, as I’ve always heard that it’s long, slow, and boring, but I found the plot to be really interesting and the characters really awesome. And I love Dickens’s writing, especially with the occasional clever quips and the way he illustrates someone’s character so well.

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

At first, the regular repetition of phrases was a bit jarring, but then it grew on me. There was also a lull in the middle where it dragged but the last third of the book was positively action packed with everything coming to fruition.

Cry count: 2

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halaagmod's review against another edition

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Absolutely insufferable. Dear Lord.

Full of flat and annoying characters, dry and longwinded paragraphs drone on for pages about absolutely nothing, horrible pacing, pointless conflicts, coupled with a love triangle that really adds nothing to the plot and makes no sense when the whole point is the characters being caught up in the middle of the French Revolution. It's clear Dickens was more concerned with his writing and making the story sound good when reading aloud than making an interesting and coherent story with any level of depth.

It's probably a classic for a reason, but honestly

that one fucking kid that got ran over by a cart to show the cruelty of the ruling class

probably had a way nicer fucking time than I did trying to read this shit. Ugh. Waste of time.

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