A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What starts as a slow moving tale of two different livelihoods soon starts to unravel; much like Mrs. Defarge’s knitting. It's a shame that we don't get to learn much about the British spies; Dickens always keeps these characters in the dark until they're ready to interact with his main characters. However, the chief clerks of Tellson’s Bank are spies in themselves and you'll seldom see modern day bankers acting in the same way. But it does portray the idea that people have to work through the night just like spies to get things done; using sunlight as a vice to suggest that everything must stop as the activities of the revolutionaries are resuming and so they must retire themselves to hide away their secrets. It does touch briefly on the revolutionaries of France through a village tale; but of the unfortunates who are sent to the guillotine, they remain nameless. Is there too mistrust in these revolutionary times for Dickens to indulge us in revealing some of these mysteries?

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