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| The Original First Print |
'A Tale of Two Cities' Review
By Tara K. Zic
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens. That’s a title that made an everlasting impact on the literary world. I decided to write about this extraordinary novel, not only because of my extreme fascination with the French Revolution and love for literature, but also because I feel everyone should take away some knowledge about such an amazing and famous novel. Everyone should be knowledgeable about the French Revolution, an important era in human history.
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens is a historically fictional tale of several people and their happenings before and during the French Revolution, their actions and the ensuing consequences. The book starts with the evolution of the characters that play a role in the revolution. The book continues to follow those same characters and how the revolution affected and changed their former lives forever. These changes resulted in bitter sacrifice, hate, love, and violent death.
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| Execution by Guillotine, a very common death during the French Revolution, well described by Charles Dickens |
One book - how much impact could it possibly have? I pondered that question for a very long time before coming to the conclusion that the book being published isn’t the impact. It is the awareness of our history as a human race. This book spread awareness of how independent these characters are and how much they go through to just play such a minor role in such a big revolution. Think about approaching near death, just to be a minor figure in such a catastrophic revolution of over a million citizens. This book teaches the reader to be independent and that it can take over a million committed people to make a united stand.
After reading the summary of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, I came up with a few questions for Charles Dickens. So, I decided to write a letter to Sir Charles himself.
July of 1863
After learning about your miraculous novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, I have a few questions. First, I would like to ask what inspired you to write this fantastic novel? Clearly, from the knowledge I have gained about the French Revolution, it is an amazing era. However, I know that you lived after the French Revolution. So, what inspired you to go back in time and dig deeper and research it? What caused you to talk about resurrection? Are you religious? Do you believe this could really happen? In your book, there are so many amazing locations, several of which are places in France, a place I dream of going. Did you travel to these places to dig into exquisite detail? Wow. In the novel you talk a lot about Darry, the narrator for most of the story. Would you say you centered ‘Darry’ off of yourself or an acquaintance? I know when I read a book, I think of the main character as someone I know based on the characteristics the author gives him or her. If there is an protagonist, I often imagine them as myself or a good friend and the antagonist as someone who fits the evil description. What about his true love Lucy? Is she like someone you admire in your life? I simply love your work and am eager for your response!
Well Charles, I hope to hear from you soon!
Madame Tara
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Sources:
"A Tale of Two Cities." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2013.
"A Tale of Two Cities." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 June 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013.
"French Revolution." - Simple English Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2013.
Hi Tara,
ReplyDeleteI love how you wrote a letter to Charles Dickens with a lot of questions about the Tale of Two Cities. It made me wonder about the book too. Have you ever read the book? Would you recommend it?
Great blog!
~Anaga
Dear Tara,
ReplyDeleteThis post was very informative, and was not only an outstanding book report, but a lesson on the history of the French Revolution. Your vocabulary was, for lack of a better word, scrumdidlyumptious. I could tell you spent a lot of time thinking about what this book mean, and what its message to the general public was. I especially like the part where you went as far as to write a letter to Charles Dickens himself, and I really liked how you told us about the book, albeit in a an interesting way, in the form of a letter to the author. The pictures also well describe and fit what you're saying in the text. Overall, fantastic job on this blog post, and may many more great posts follow! Thanks for the intriguing reading (hey, it rhymes!)
Sincerely, Marcell S.
Hey there Tara,
ReplyDeleteTo start of I would like to say that that was a really great post! One of my favorite parts was at the very beginning, the second sentence to be exact, when you said, "That’s a title that made an everlasting impact on the literary world." I thought that it you worded it very cleanly. That clear, organized, and informative style of writing continued throughout your post, along with great vocabulary. I also love how you put the letter in at the end.
Luv,
Katie
Wow! Thank you guys for the great feedback! I really appreciated your comments! In response to Anaga's question, I actually have not read the book, which is what gave my blog more of an outline style! However from what I have learned, it seems to be an excellent book.
ReplyDeleteTara
Tara,
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post about the novel "A Tale of Two Cities". I especially liked how you wrote a letter to Charles Dickens himself. It was such a fun way to read about a book, and a good way to see your opinion on the book. Your vocabulary was exquisite, and if I hadn't known better, I would of thought that your letter was written by someone during the French Revolution! You said in your post that the book teaches the reader to be independent. Did this book make you want to be more independent, or change in some other way? Overall, this was an amazing post. Thank you,
Piper
Tara,
ReplyDeleteI like how you took a piece from the lit packet and reviewed it. What a creative idea. This really goes into lots of detail about the story and is a great use of photos and text.
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Thanks for writing this excellent blog,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this period in history was extremely interesting and I think your questions were very thoughtful.
This blog makes me want to read this book
Thanks for writing this interesting blog,
-Freddie