Review: A Tale of Two Cities

 

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859.  The French Revolution began in 1789 – the storming of the Bastille plays a significant part of the novel.  The two cities of Dickens’ novel are London and Paris.  This novel is much more of a historical novel than so many of Dickens’ character-driven novels.  It concerns two revolutions – and a warning about revolution.

Dickens is not against revolution per se, but as he sees it, revolution with an eye towards establishing established rights – especially based on a religious foundation – will lead to progress; whereas revolution with an eye towards destroying those one disagrees with – especially based on an atheistic or “secular” – will lead to chaos.  Revolution can be good (in some sense), or it can be evil.

Dickens is looking back at past revolutions and warning his contemporaries that revolution is not neutral – as it unfolds, it has consequences towards one way or another.

I prefer Dickens’ character-driven novels, but the characters do work and make the point – the warning – that Dickens desires to get across.  Read and be warned.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com].