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 hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Reading this book was truly the best of times and the worst of times! And I totally loved that! The first and the most obvious theme of this novel is the French Revolution and the formation of the new Republic. But like in all of his novels Dickens explores society. It's a novel about people and their families. It's a novel about loyalty and justice, suffering and judgement. In other words, it's a novel about life. Surely, it's not an easy book to read but it doesn't mean you won't enjoy it. For starters, Charles Dickens is the King of Style. Not only does he describe scenes vividly but he also uses, no, make that manipulates the language to make scenes come alive. He's the master of sentence-building. If that is not enough, then how about an amazingly twisted plot? You'll get a couple of surprises along the way, that's for sure. To round up my review, I would like to put down a quote from the novel. "Of little worth as life is when we misuse it, it is worth that effort." And so is spending a few hours reading "A tale of two cities".
