Reaction to "A Tale of Two Cities."

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was part of my self-selected, self-assigned summer reading--you know, to make me a better person. ;) Or, more genuinely, to satisfy a kind of curiosity, to see what critics approved of so highly. I didn't intend to like it; I approached it the way others might tour a famous site in a faraway land, finding it interesting more for the history it represents than for its own qualities. But I soon stopped reading like a tourist. I got engaged, and read without irony, with no space between me and the novel, just because I wanted to. I wasn't expecting that.

That last page was the most I've cared about fictional characters in a long time. So, well, done, Mr. Dickens of London. If this volume is any indication, you may have quite a career ahead of you...

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