Classic book club discussion

"It was the best of times, It was the worst of times...." Now that the month is coming to an end, what are your final thoughts on the book?? how did you like it or what you wished there was more of?


I personally loved it and thought it was amazing. It's my top fave book by him after David Copperfield. It reminded me why I enjoyed reading dickens in the first place.

I honestly struggled to get through much of the middle on this one.
I am on the third part now and while I am glad I didn't DNF it, I also kind of want it to be over. I did not enjoy the characters so much, however, I do appreciate Dickens' intentions with more emphasis on the historical aspect of the story, the duality in his writing, the societal concerns and injustices of the time.

That opening line though! Truly eerie how relevant it still is in 2024 as it was in 1859 and in regards to 1775.

Nikki wrote: "I honestly struggled to get through much of the middle on this one.
I am on the third part now and while I am glad I didn't DNF it, I also kind of want it to be over. I did not enjoy the character..."

I do have to agree with what you said, dickens' characters are kinda insufferable at times. As someone who had taken an entire course on him, he writes a LOT of description on the location and the politics. As well as his metaphors. He is also fairly known to my understanding and the pattern to take in a lot of details of characters hair or like the very tiny details more. Also he talks a lot of child labor which he was a victim to irl but it was kinda omitted to this book cause it was a literal comparison of two cities. I think since this book was written fairly closely to David Copperfield that is why I enjoyed reading it more than his other books probably.