Andrew Sanders ( editor ) - A Tale of Two Cities

Pros: Historically valuable, endearing characters, inspiring message and denouement.

Cons: Perhaps not his most entertaining work.

The Bottom Line: Simply a must read.

Review: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of ...

Pros: Great historical novel that illustrates universal truths

Cons: More people should read A Tale of Two Cities

The Bottom Line: A Tale of Two Cities is a classic with good reason. It would be time well spent reading this great novel that opens your mind to some higher thinking.

Review: Madame Guillotine: A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (1859) "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believeth in me though he were dead, yet will he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me will never die." ...

Pros: Well-drawn characters; brilliant prose; powerful and still pertinent social commentary

Cons: Old-fashioned prose might make some readers give up in the early chapters. Please persevere!

The Bottom Line: A wonderful, heartrending novel. If you're a Dickens enthusiast, enjoy it again. If you're a Dickens novice, this is a good place to start.

Review: When I was in college in the late 1980s, one of my English professors used to keep cartoons posted on her office door. One of my favorites was titled something like "confessions of an English major" and portrayed two graduates wearing caps and gowns, in ...

Pros: A true marvel of literature

Cons: First half is boring

Review: At the time this was written, France and England had the same social conditions. The aristocracy ruled, the peons suffered beyond suffering. Then came the French Revolution. Dickens was trying to point out that if major social changes weren't made in...

Pros: Incredible writing, heart-wrenching ending, beautiful metaphors

Cons: An underdeveloped character in Lucie -- something that can be ignored

Review: ...OK, so I didn't really laugh, but "I Cried" is not exactly a great title for an epinion.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” begins Dickens’ chilling story of the French Revolution. In the first chapter of the...

Pros: Great characters; Historically interesting

Cons: Can be dense; Some might not like the coincidences so common with Dickens

The Bottom Line: Dickens' view on the French Revolution is interesting and valid, even today. While the use of coincidence may be off-putting, it by no means destroys the story.

Review: A Tale of Two Cities is Dickens' vision of the French Revolution, a character drama given much extra weight by the enormous social, political and economic upheavals that were happening in France in the late eighteenth century. While the beginning of the ...

Pros: Unbelievable love story - best ever written.

Cons: not an action story, does not let itself to high school/collegiate critiques

The Bottom Line: If you like romantic stories, this is the best one written. Read it.

Review: Having read some opinions regarding this book, and more particularly the reviews on those opinions, I felt compelled to add my own. The previous reviewers - all of the previous reviewers - seem to have read this book to analyze it. Indeed, they even ...

Pros: everything barring the cons

Cons: the colorless Charles Darnay

The Bottom Line: This novel has everything you could possibly ask for-- a great historical background, well written characters, and a fitting ending.

Review: "A Tale of Two cities" has every possible element of a classic. It has a historical background, a hero and heroine who fit the bill perfectly(as far as the cliche of perfect protagonists goes). It also has secondary characters whose stories are as...

Pros: A masterpiece that is entertaining and historically accurate

Cons: some people think it is boring. I beg to differ!

Review: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." One of the most influential and know introductory sentences in all of language comes from Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens does it again and creates a masterpiece work in...

Pros: Full of adventure and drama!!!!

Cons: None.

Review: With this novel Sidney Carton joins that exalted group of Dickens's characters who have earned a permanent place in the popular literary imagination. His dramatic story, set against the volcanic fury of the French Revolution and pervaded by the ominous...