tsar
~3.5 stars
Now, I am a Dickens fan. Seriously, I am. I had this book’s absolute banger of an opening paragraph printed up on my bedroom wall growing up. (Yeah I was a wanna-be theater nerd, sue me!) Maybe those great expectations (pun intended) set this up to be a let down or maybe there’s some substance to my humble criticism.
Although I have to tip my hat off to Dickens for creating solid characters, having well described motivations and wrapping all that up in a well-paced book. I say solid characters but not multi-dimension because some characters are just there for symbolism like Lucie, she depicts innocence and a peaceful, stable state of England contrasted with the volatile state of France. It is not a bad thing though to use characters for representing themes, especially for a book marketed as “one of the greatest novels on the French Revolution.”
Yes, the literary titan can write!
I loved how he shows the reader that revolution, erosion of the social fabric while necessary is also painful and destructive; more often than not leads to a dark time for the aforementioned society. A theme that’s perennially relevant, be it 250 years ago or now. This is a good outsider view of French Revolution and its impact. Much emphasis on the word - outsider, because it appears like Dickens is preaching the greatness of the British empire and looking down at the French society. There’s a strong nationalism undertone associated in this book, regarding how much more human and meritorious Great Britain is compared to French empire and I didn’t like that because, well colonialism.
If one chooses to ignore the nationalist flair in the book, then there’s no issue but can you ignore it though considering its blurb literally proclaims it as - “one of the greatest novels on the French Revolution.”
~3.5 stars
Now, I am a Dickens fan. Seriously, I am. I had this book’s absolute banger of an opening paragraph printed up on my bedroom wall growing up. (Yeah I was a wanna-be theater nerd, sue me!) Maybe those great expectations (pun intended) set this up to be a let down or maybe there’s some substance to my humble criticism.
Although I have to tip my hat off to Dickens for creating solid characters, having well described motivations and wrapping all that up in a well-paced book. I say solid characters but not multi-dimension because some characters are just there for symbolism like Lucie, she depicts innocence and a peaceful, stable state of England contrasted with the volatile state of France. It is not a bad thing though to use characters for representing themes, especially for a book marketed as “one of the greatest novels on the French Revolution.”
Yes, the literary titan can write!
I loved how he shows the reader that revolution, erosion of the social fabric while necessary is also painful and destructive; more often than not leads to a dark time for the aforementioned society. A theme that’s perennially relevant, be it 250 years ago or now. This is a good outsider view of French Revolution and its impact. Much emphasis on the word - outsider, because it appears like Dickens is preaching the greatness of the British empire and looking down at the French society. There’s a strong nationalism undertone associated in this book, regarding how much more human and meritorious Great Britain is compared to French empire and I didn’t like that because, well colonialism.
If one chooses to ignore the nationalist flair in the book, then there’s no issue but can you ignore it though considering its blurb literally proclaims it as - “one of the greatest novels on the French Revolution.”