In the fictitious novel Tale of Two Cities, the author, Charles Dickens, lays out a brilliant plot. Charles Dickens was born in England on February 7, 1812 near the south coast. His family moved to London when he was ten years old and quickly went into debt. To help support himself, Charles went to work at a blacking warehouse when he was twelve. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly thereafter the rest of the family split apart. Charles continued to work at the blacking warehouse even after his father inherited some money and got out of prison. When he was thirteen, Dickens went back to school for two years. He later learned shorthand and became a freelance court reporter. He started out as a journalist at the age of twenty and later wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He went on to write many other novels, including Tale of Two Cities in 1859. Tale of Two Cities takes place in France and England during the troubled times of the French Revolution. There are travels by the characters between the countries, but most of the action takes place in Paris, France. The wine shop in Paris is the hot spot for the French revolutionists, mostly

central themes. One theme involves revenge. One's bad side is brought out by the evil effects of revenge. Madame Defarge is the main subject of this implicit theme. She turns into a killing machine because she must get revenge. An example of this is when she finds out Charles Darnay is an Evermonde and is going to marry Lucie Manette. She knits Darnay's name into the death register. Another key theme in the novel has to do with courage and sacrifice. There were many sacrifices in this novel by many different characters. The ultimate sacrifice was made by Sydney Carton. Because of his love for Lucie and his friendship with Darnay, Carton is the example of one of the most important themes implied in this book. Carton helps others, and does not think so much of himself. Right before going to the guillotine, Carton sees a better world, a world where he gave to others, not thinking of himself. These themes help outline an interesting story.

them immediately get ready to leave the country. Carton, having spy

Tale of Two Cities is a very long and detailed historical novel. It is my opinion that the major strength of this book was the suspense and drama involved to keep the reader hooked. There are always incidents to keep the reader thinking, "what's going to happen now?" For example, I as a reader wondered, "Will Dr. Manette ever get back to his old self?"; "What will happen to Charles Darnay?"; and so on. A major weakness of this book, in my opinion, was the fact that it was so very long and had a somewhat advanced vocabulary. Tale of Two Cities was almost 400 pages long and took quite a bit of thinking on the reader's part to understand. The novel used such words as "capricious"; "coquette"; "tergiversation"; and "acquiesced", among others, which I included on my vocabulary list. I will admit, this writing does enhance one's terminology greatly, but these words are not used in everyday speech. It is good to read literary classics, however, Dickens Tale of Two Cities would not be one of my favorites.

for Lucie, goes to the guillotine in place of Charles. Jus

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1413
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)