A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (Book Review)

A Tale of Two Cities

By Charles Dickens

Published by Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004

Price: $5.95

Everyone and their mother has heard the opening lines of this book: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." but I wonder how many people have actually ever READ this novel? It's kinda like Hamlet's "To be or not to be.....". Everyone knows where it comes from but not everyone knows what the actual context of the quote is. I am one of those ilk. This was my first time to read this novel. I'm creating something of a bucket list of novels I want to read before I die, and this was one of the many on my list. 

Looking at this novel and seeing it was published in 1859 made me think it was far removed from our time. I mean a year later America would be having its Civil War. How could this possibly relate to 2020?  Surprisingly, there were a lot of parallels thanks to the current lawlessness and identity politics denunciations sweeping the United States right now in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. I mean just look at the cover art of this book. That could be downtown Los Angeles!

Charles Dickens was an SJW in his own era. Fortunately, there was no television or internet back then. So he poured all his social justice inclinations into his fiction. Fiction, which to me at least, doesn't seem preachy. It's more like journalism of what actually was. 

A Tale of Two cities is about two families, both originally from France, but both currently calling England their home, who get caught up in the bloody madness of the French Revolution of the late 18th century.  The story starts in 1775 when Lucie Manette's father is released from the Bastille after 15 years of imprisonment. Lucie had thought he was dead because when you live in a tyranny you can be arrested without charges or a trial and be stuck in a dungeon for the rest of your days. Even though he suffers from PTSD, her father is able to resume a normal life as a doctor in his new homeland of England. Lucie had been spirited there as an infant by a business associate of her dad's. 

When she comes of age as a pretty young woman, Lucie becomes the center of two men's affections. Charles Darnay is a man she first meets because as a witness in a criminal trial focused on whether Darnay is a French spy. The other is one of Darnay's lawyers, the alcoholic ne'er do well Sydney Carton. Carton is a misanthrope who thinks he's wasted his life away with drinking and revel. He's not exactly marriage material. Lucie is much more attracted to the dashing and brave Darnay. Unfortunately, Darnay's past is going to drag the Manettes back to France during it's most chaotic and dangerous time. 

I'm no expert on the French Revolution, but what is on display in this work of fiction is pretty appalling. It reminds me a lot of the left wing movements that are currently trying to take over the country. Once the mobs get control of Paris and the military they begin to round up anyone they consider a traitor, mostly aristocrats, but more accurately, anyone that doesn't meet their standards of being a "Patriot". Anyone that does not support their cause in other words. Anyone who thinks for themselves and has a differing opinion. Rabble rousers like the villainous Madame Defarge who has been nursing a bloody grudge against the nobles, is able to finally unleash murder upon whoever she deems deserves it. Trials are conducted with no attention to law or justice, merely revenge and anger.

Dickens states that the mobs had to dismantle the systems of law in order to achieve what they wanted. It's not really any different now. The BLM movement wants to defund and dismantle the police. I watched a stream the other day in which the marchers were chanting "Law by law, the system will fall!" and then there's the story of marchers breaking down a private neighborhood gate and invading only to be confronted by armed homeowners who said they thought it was going to turn into the "storming of the Bastille". Mobs are dangerous and unpredictable. Once they cross the rule of law, anything goes. Anything can happen. 

According to Dickens, the Revolution occurred because the rich and powerful had no care for the middle class and the poor. In one scene from the book a noble's carriage runs over and kills a young girl and the noble could care less, has no remorse, offers to just give some coins to the parents. Were there some nice aristocrats in France who tried to help the common people? Probably, but they were few and far between. I think the French people had good reason to revolt, but not to take it to the bloody extremes they did. 

Today's protests seem more like people wandering the streets because they don't have anything better to do. The murder of George Floyd has become a t-shirt and now we just have people wanting attention, that like to scream and hurl insults at cops. Or clueless unemployed white liberals. But if they truly ever did overthrow our government, I think the end would be a lot like the French Revolution. What came after the left wing revolt was a reign of terror by the people and then, an absolute ruler, an EMPEROR for god's sake. The American Revolution, at least to me, is the exception to the rule, in which that which comes after revolt, is better than what came before. 

The Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death. Wow, what a motto. The people in France were not free, they were not equal, they killed their brothers, and yes, the revolution died. 

This Barnes and Noble Classics edition had good endnotes to help you understand Dickens's more obscure historical references. 

My Grade: A-