A Tale of Two Cities

It took a while, but I finished this one.

Okay, hold on, if I start this now I'll never get out the door. I'll be back in a few hours, alright?

*A few hours later*

What a series of adventures! I sloughed off my external layer of filth in the shower, and bought creamed corn! Oh, boy, creamed corn!

Right, right, Dickens, A Tale, right.

So I watched Star Trek II with Simon a month or so ago, and the ending funeral uses a famous quote from A Tale of Two Cities "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

Not only that, but the latest Batman movie Dark Knight Rises featured the exact same quote as read by Gordon for Bruce Wayne's funeral!

I have got to read this book!

The last few times I've met up with a particular group of friends, toting this particular tome with me, I've been met with (mock?) derision. Seems Dickens isn't that well liked a figure with this group. Well, I like him just fine!

That said, the opening chapters were ROUGH to get through. Yes, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." is about as famous a line of literature as there is, however the doubling and the perhaps paradoxical language continues on for quite some time afterwards "... 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..." etc. etc. It keeps going on like this!

(Brief aside on the notes in this volume: much as the notes were so often useful at providing informative context, did note the 1st REALLY need to happen after "It was the best of times"? You couldn't even let me finish that most famous line in one piece before you ask me to jump to the back of the book and break the flow of the line.)

For a nearly 400 page novel, it feels like there's a lot of room for compression. I guess that's why they could have this story as the basis for an episode of Wishbone (now I wish I'd watched the thing. I guess I just really am not that interested in dogs telling stories. Or just dogs. Or, at that age, t.v. shows that didn't star Batman or Spider-Man. Or Turtles or Power Rangers. Moving on.)

The language is needlessly circuitous, mostly just at the first few chapters, giving us a slow start. The consequent effect is rather neat then, that you get so absorbed in the activity at the very end, you get a fast end.

Of the various characters, my favourite (a word used in place of "the most important" just to be safe) is Sydney Carton. It is, perhaps, his last words we hear recorded by the omniscient narrator at novels end after he switches places with the much more reputable but doomed ex-French aristocrat Charles Darnay, and gets la Guillotine where it would have come to Darnay otherwise.

What a convoluted, but at least slightly nice sounding, few sentences there. As ever, I mimic the last work read.

Sydney thinks he's no good, that he's wasted his life. A pivotal moment has him sequestered with the lovely Lucie Manette, to whom he confesses his love, but with a twist. He's so sure that there's no chance that she could love him back, and he's right (!), but the interview does inspire a new respect for him, and more importantly, Sydney pledges to do anything in the world in the service of Lucie. Years later, taking the place of her husband Darnay, he makes good on his word, and in so doing is forever uplifted in each of their hearts and minds. (This confessional love scene rather reminds me of the one between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (Oh, Mr. Darcy!) where he confesses his love, with the interview ending rather worse for Darcy than with Carton, though Darcy's situation eventually improved drastically in that matter. Timing wise, seems Pride and Prejudice was printed in 1813, almost 50 years before A Tale got out of the gate. I wonder if Dickens read Pride and Prejudice...)

To make this bit of high sounding rhetoric more crass and in keeping with my usual tone and topics... he's basically Batman. He hates himself because he's no good (say, because he couldn't save his parents) and sacrifices himself for the happiness of others. There were parallels enough in The Dark Knight, but MAN Dark Knight Rises IS basically A Tale of Two Cities. They've even got a snooty business guy named Stryver hanging around in the movie- yup, that's a character in the book!

The "power to the people" Occupy Wall Street motifs, which I think most people realized were coincidental as the film was at least scripted before those happened, were actually just a modern day re-enactment of the French Revolution. Bane breaks the prisoners out of Blackgate prison, rather, the Bastille. Bane and Talia are the new Defarges, with Madame Defarge once again emerging as the really terrifying threat.

I say Bruce Wayne/Batman is actually pulling double duty as both Darnay AND Carton. Bruce Wayne is the embodiment of the high society extravagance the League of Shadows fought against, but still a sympathetic figure for his good works, and more importantly it is Bruce Wayne's survival that is ensured by the sacrifice of Batman at the movies end. I think that may actually be why there was no way for the time to work out for Batman to save the city and himself- he DID die with that action, leaving Bruce able to continue with his life, or maybe to just start it.

That is a more symbolic reading for the finale of the Batman trilogy, but I wouldn't put it past Nolan to be making that move. Of course, with people expecting a "realistic" Batman from him, do to his own words (probably, again, not meant literally. Perhaps "real" in this context meant "has feelings about stuff" which is in itself another problem, since that means Nolan is disregarding the longstanding tradition of Bat comics with feeling.)

Back to the book itself, right at the end there's a wicked sweet fight between Ms. Pross, who speaks only english and is a friend to the Evremonde's (okay, that's the secret french aristocrat name that Darnay descends from, so Pross probably isn't familiar with it, but it's a cool name and I wanted to leave it somewhere) against the ruthless Madame Defarge, who only speaks french, and has a personal score against the Evremonde's and is thus the enemy of Darnay and his wife and child.

Taking a moment to consider Madame Defarge's motivation, it's easy to sympathise with her. Her brother and sister were ultimately killed by the Evremonde family, though Charles was just an innocent boy at the time, and she swore revenge.

In summary, cool book, I'm tired. (Boy, I sure am great at conclusions)