Book review: Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I have been wading through this audiobook for ... pretty much the last six months. Or at least it certainly feels that way. It was boring as all get out. Once I reached the end, I came to understand the reason for some of the rabbit trail tangents the story went on from time to time. These created the backstory for how the author was able to pull everything together at the end. But at the time these little side-stories were included, they were just distractions. I don't know who the protagonist of the story was supposed to be. Or what the main conflict was (aside from the French Revolution). The story probably would have hung together better for me if I'd read it in a shorter period, but God did it ever drag!
Here's the plot, for those unfamiliar with Charles Dickens' supposed masterpiece:
An old dude is in French prison. His former servant, who now owns a wine shop in Paris, gets him out. The old dude's daughter is escorted to the old dude in France by their banker. Then they go to England. Then the story shifts to a scoundrel named Jerry who runs errands for the same bank the banker works at, but the Paris branch instead of the English one. Jerry beats his wife and then attends a nobleman's trial. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything, until we find out that the daughter and her father (now somewhat recovered from prison-induced PTSD) are witnesses as to the nobleman's conduct when they were on the same boat together, crossing the English Channel. The nobleman is acquitted and leaves. Then the scene shifts again to the subject of the excesses of the French nobility in general and how a few in particular were really awful, including this nobleman's uncle. I forget what the circumstances were, but the nobleman leaves France, goes to England, and marries the daughter of the old dude. They all live happily together. She gets pregnant, but the baby dies. Then we hear some more about how bad things are in France, including some intrigues by the old dude's former servant, the wine shop owner. And the wine shop owner's wife, who knits a lot. Apparently they're instrumental in organizing the coming Revolution. There's more long passages about the mender of roads and what he sees, the assassination of the nobleman's uncle, a child gets run over by a coach, people are miserable and starving, and things suck. But the scene shifts back to idyllic England, where the old dude's daughter gets pregnant again and has a little girl. Years pass. Different boring crap happens, including an aside about the scoundrel Jerry engaging in grave-robbing, and some braggart lawyers in France being assholes. Then the French Revolution happens. All hell breaks loose and the story follows that for a while, but it doesn't have crap to do with any of the family in England - not even the nobleman, because his uncle got whacked many chapters ago and the nobleman had cut all family ties.
Finally, the two plots tie together as one of the nobleman's uncle's servants sends the nobleman a letter begging for help. Seems he's been tossed in prison for being the direct servant of nobility. The nobleman goes to France. He gets captured and tossed in prison for being an immigrant, since he's lately come from England. His wife and the old dude show up with their banker and get him out of jail after 8 months of struggle (and several boring chapters about a wood-sawer, the language skills of the household maid, etc.) Getting out of prison lasts only a night before he gets thrown back in again, this time accused by the old dude's former servant (the wine shop owner) of having been the admitted nephew of the assassinated shithole, who was such a shithole, that they feel his entire family line should be put to death and his nephew will stand in for them. For some reason, my download didn't include the ending. I pulled it up online and scanned over it. One of the lousy lawyers we were introduced to earlier fell in love with the daughter of the old dude, and had a striking resemblance to the nobleman. So he somehow pulls a switcheroo and dies in the nobleman's place. It's contrived and I have no interest in getting the rest of the audiobook so I can hear the actual words.
This is supposed to be such a great story. It's not my taste, which is odd because I've enjoyed many of Dickens' other works. I look forward to a short, quick read of Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None, which is next on my reading list.
Here's the plot, for those unfamiliar with Charles Dickens' supposed masterpiece:
An old dude is in French prison. His former servant, who now owns a wine shop in Paris, gets him out. The old dude's daughter is escorted to the old dude in France by their banker. Then they go to England. Then the story shifts to a scoundrel named Jerry who runs errands for the same bank the banker works at, but the Paris branch instead of the English one. Jerry beats his wife and then attends a nobleman's trial. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything, until we find out that the daughter and her father (now somewhat recovered from prison-induced PTSD) are witnesses as to the nobleman's conduct when they were on the same boat together, crossing the English Channel. The nobleman is acquitted and leaves. Then the scene shifts again to the subject of the excesses of the French nobility in general and how a few in particular were really awful, including this nobleman's uncle. I forget what the circumstances were, but the nobleman leaves France, goes to England, and marries the daughter of the old dude. They all live happily together. She gets pregnant, but the baby dies. Then we hear some more about how bad things are in France, including some intrigues by the old dude's former servant, the wine shop owner. And the wine shop owner's wife, who knits a lot. Apparently they're instrumental in organizing the coming Revolution. There's more long passages about the mender of roads and what he sees, the assassination of the nobleman's uncle, a child gets run over by a coach, people are miserable and starving, and things suck. But the scene shifts back to idyllic England, where the old dude's daughter gets pregnant again and has a little girl. Years pass. Different boring crap happens, including an aside about the scoundrel Jerry engaging in grave-robbing, and some braggart lawyers in France being assholes. Then the French Revolution happens. All hell breaks loose and the story follows that for a while, but it doesn't have crap to do with any of the family in England - not even the nobleman, because his uncle got whacked many chapters ago and the nobleman had cut all family ties.
Finally, the two plots tie together as one of the nobleman's uncle's servants sends the nobleman a letter begging for help. Seems he's been tossed in prison for being the direct servant of nobility. The nobleman goes to France. He gets captured and tossed in prison for being an immigrant, since he's lately come from England. His wife and the old dude show up with their banker and get him out of jail after 8 months of struggle (and several boring chapters about a wood-sawer, the language skills of the household maid, etc.) Getting out of prison lasts only a night before he gets thrown back in again, this time accused by the old dude's former servant (the wine shop owner) of having been the admitted nephew of the assassinated shithole, who was such a shithole, that they feel his entire family line should be put to death and his nephew will stand in for them. For some reason, my download didn't include the ending. I pulled it up online and scanned over it. One of the lousy lawyers we were introduced to earlier fell in love with the daughter of the old dude, and had a striking resemblance to the nobleman. So he somehow pulls a switcheroo and dies in the nobleman's place. It's contrived and I have no interest in getting the rest of the audiobook so I can hear the actual words.
This is supposed to be such a great story. It's not my taste, which is odd because I've enjoyed many of Dickens' other works. I look forward to a short, quick read of Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None, which is next on my reading list.