Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

21 reviews

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is a masterpiece. It was my favourite Dickens when I first read it in 2007, and I'm so glad I picked it up again. The characters are brilliant, the relationships messy, good and evil changing sides and coming from places you wouldn't expect. But despite being one of his heaviest novels emotionally, the classic humour is still there, and doesn't let up at even the bleakest moments. There's also a real sensitivity to mental health for a Victorian novel, in Manette and the way his friends and family support him.

La Guillotine is a spectre that hangs over the final part of the book - a character in herself, devoid of mercy and a constant ominous presence. I see her as an extension of Madame Defarge (who is so complicated, but who I can't help but love in her malevolent knitting righteousness).

The lines are blurred during the Revolution, and what starts as workers' revenge descends into barely justified murder, so you just can't tell whose side you even want to be on by the end. But it's a terrifying example of what brutal class divides can lead to.

This book has one of the greatest endings in literature, as well as some of the greatest opening and closing lines. But I still believe the end is far more complicated than it seems. The tension and emotion are brilliantly built up, and the whole thing lives rent free in my head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Child death and Mental illness

benegesserwitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Alcoholism and Classism

Minor: Gore

soph_mills's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Classism

helenafaustina's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Nothing is inappropriate, but should be for a more mature audience, good for high school.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism

halaagmod's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Death of parent

quixie's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The opening and closing lines of this novel are just incredible, so is the plot. The prose was bit hard to get through, and I didn’t connect much with the characters. Also, I felt that the book could have been 1/3 shorter. There were several ghastly scenes that made me audibly gasp and I learned a lot about the French Revolution. Overall, incredible book, just a little difficult to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol

not_nosferatu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Death

Minor: Rape

acogna's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Dickens proves again his masterful command of the English language. His world of Two Cities is humorous, blunt, treacherous, emotional, but full of hope and faith in humanity. I genuinely tear up whenever I think of this ending, and the love it inspires in any kind of reader. A magnum opus.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Child death

whisper88's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Forced institutionalization