The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread for the table of contents and syllabus for the book:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Table of Contents: (thanks to Becky Lindroos)

by Charles Dickens


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Table of Contents

Signet Classic Edition

ISBN-10: 0451526562 | ISBN-13: 978-0451526564
Publication Date: August 1, 1997

Introduction by Frederick Busch ix
Preface to the First Edition xvii

Book the First—Recalled to Life

I. The Period 13
II. The Mail 15
III. The Night Shadows 21
IV. The Preparation 25
V. The Wine-shop 36
VI. The Shoemaker 47


Book the Second—the Golden Thread

I. Five Years Later 61
II. A Sight 67
III. A Disappointment 73
IV. Congratulatory 86
V. The Jackal 93
VI. Hundreds of People 97
VII. Monseigneur in Town 109
VIII. Monseigneur in the Country 118
IX. The Gorgon's Head 123
X. Two Promises 134
XI. A Companion Picture 141
XII. The Fellow of Delicacy 148
XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy 152
XIV. The Honest Tradesman 156
XV. Knitting 166
XVI. Still Knitting 177
XVII. One Night 187
XVIII. Nine Days 192
XIX. An Opinion 198
XX. A Plea 208
XXI. Echoing Footsteps 209
XXII. The Sea Still Rises 219
XXIII. Fire Rises 225
XXIV. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock 231

Book the Third—the Track of a Storm

I. In Secret 248
II. The Grindstone 256
III. The Shadow 262
IV. Calm in Storm 267
V. The Wood-Sawyer 272
VI. Triumph 278
VII. A Knock at the Door 284
VIII. A Hand at Cards 289
IX. The Game Made
X. The Substance of the Shadow
XI. Dusk
XII. Darkness
XIII. Fifty-two
XIV. The Knitting Done
XV. The Footsteps Die Out Forever

Selected Bibliography 369

Syllabus to follow: (thanks to Becky Lindroos)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Table of Contents

Signet Classic Edition
ISBN:
ISBN-10: 0451526562 | ISBN-13: 978-0451526564
Publication Date: August 1, 1997

Week One - February 6 - February 12
(pages ix - 24)
Introduction by Frederick Busch ix
Preface to the First Edition xvii
Book the First—Recalled to Life
I. The Period 13
II. The Mail 15
III. The Night Shadows 21

Week Two - February 13 - February 19
(pages 25 - 60)
IV. The Preparation 25
V. The Wine-shop 36
VI. The Shoemaker 47

Week Three - February 20 - February 26
(pages 61-92)
Book the Second—the Golden Thread
I. Five Years Later 61
II. A Sight 67
III. A Disappointment 73
IV. Congratulatory 86

Week Four - February 27 - March 4
(pages 93 - 122)
V. The Jackal 93
VI. Hundreds of People 97
VII. Monseigneur in Town 109
VIII. Monseigneur in the Country 118

Week Five - March 5 - March 11
(pages 123 - 155)
IX. The Gorgon's Head 123
X. Two Promises 134
XI. A Companion Picture 141
XII. The Fellow of Delicacy 148
XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy 152

Week Six - March 12 - March 18
(pages 156 - 191)
XIV. The Honest Tradesman 156
XV. Knitting 166
XVI. Still Knitting 177
XVII. One Night 187

Week Seven - March 19 - March 25
(pages 192 - 224)
XVIII . Nine Days 192
XIV. An Opinion 198
XX. A Plea 208
XXI. Echoing Footsteps 209
XXII. The Sea Still Rises 219

Week Eight - March 26 - April 1
(pages 225 - 255)
XXVIII. Fire Rises 225
XXIV. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock 231
Book the Third—the Track of a Storm
I. In Secret 248

Week Nine - April 2 - April 8
(pages 256 - 283)
II. The Grindstone 256
III. The Shadow 262
IV Calm in Storm 267
V. The Wood-Sawyer 272
VI. Triumph 278

Week Ten - April 9 - April 15
(pages 284 - 312)
VII. A Knock at the Door 284
VIII. A Hand at Cards 289
IX. The Game Made 301

Week Eleven - April 16 - April 22
(pages 313 - 338)
X. The Substance of the Shadow 313
XI. Dusk 327
XII. Darkness 331

Week Twelve - April 23 - April 29
(pages 339 - 368)
XIII. Fifty-two 339
XIV. The Knitting Done 350
XV. The Footsteps Die Out Forever 362

Week Thirteen - April 30 – May 6
Book as a Whole - Final Thoughts

Synopsis of Book:

First published in 1859, A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens's most famous and popular novels. This stirring tale, set in the late eighteenth century against the backdrop of the French Revolution, is a novel for all generations. Filled with adventure and love, revolution and terror, it transports the reader to a time of political upheaval and solutions by guillotine.

Source: Goodreads

I'm in starting Feb 6

Terrific Vince; we will be sending out an event notification soon so be sure to check yes.

I just came across this; if I can, I'll try to join this one. I haven't read this since my junior year English class in high school - and that was a million years ago!

That is great Virginia.

No need to have the same edition, but there's a Signet edition available for free from Goodreads - click the book and read where it says "read book."


I have the Barnes & Noble Classics edition but I'll try to find the corresponding page numbers in the Signet and use them for references as needed.

Thanks for letting folks know Becky.

Count me in! I just downloaded the book and am ready to go.

I'm looking forward to this as well. Thank you for the information about the Goodreads version, I was wondering how to figure out the page number with my ancient Penguin Classics edition.

Glad that all of you are ready to go on this one.

Count me in on this one! This is one of my most favorite books ever!

Glad to have you with us.

Good to see you all with us! Sounds great to me.

Count me in too. This book club experience is all new to me. I'm having fun and look forward to the process.

I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK.

Even wrote a fanfiction for it. And got it published by a small time press.

I found a lithograph of one of Frederick Barnard's rendering of the guillotine soliloquy - just beautiful...

Somehow I made it through two years of high school British Literature without reading this book. Looking forward to finally reading Dickens.

Sharon wrote:
"I found a lithograph of one of Frederick Barnard's rendering of the guillotine soliloquy - just be..."

I've seen a couple of the reprints (in books and the web) where did you find this gem?

by Charles Dickens is a very good book - not his standard fare, though. Some like it better than the' usual tales, others less so. I think my favorite Dickens is but that's a bit different, too - not or . I think possibly is more powerful - it's certainly a bit darker - my opinion, of course.

Becky wrote: "by Charles Dickens is a very good book - not his standard fare, though. Some like it better than the' usual ..."

Nice one Becky, I'm impressed that your favorite is Bleak House! I will admit that I found that piece of work a bit more difficult to get into, despite the amazing-ness of those first few paragraphs, but once I got going it was great! Dickens is an absolute master of description. I would even credit him, and A Tale of Two Cities especially, with inspiring my love of history. If I could meet any author from history, he would be at the top of the list.

Becky wrote: "Sharon wrote:
"I found a lithograph of one of Frederick Barnard's rendering of the guillotine soliloquy - just be..."

I've seen a couple of the reprints (in books and the web) where did you find ..."

I happened to be in an antique mall and came across it. It had a few mold spots on it and was in a wood frame that had square nails in it (they stopped making square nails in the 1930s). I had it restored and reframed. The really funny thing was on the day I found it, I discovered I no longer had my high school copy of TOTC so I went to B&N to buy a new one, and the exact same picture was on the front cover of the new reprint! It was serendipity LOL. The print I found in the antique store wasnt water-colored though...

What a great find, Sharon! I'm kinda green.

I read this book my Sophomore year in high school (12 years ago) and loved it! It's my favorite book by Dickens - though that's not saying much because the only other book I've read by him is and I didn't finish it lol. Really looking forward to this group reading.

I am new to Goodreads and am not familiar with the free books they have on this site. Is it possible to download the Signet edition Becky mentioned to an e-reader or must you read it on a PC?

K

You can download a freebie of
from Amazon or Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/98
or several other places.

I haven't been able to locate a free version with an "Introduction" or with the "Author's Preface to the 1st edition." There is an introduction at Victorian Web but it has spoilers. I'll see what I can do about that.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/d...

I had downloaded a free version to my Kindle last year, but hadn't read it yet. I'm looking forward to it, as this is one of the few Dickens novels I hadn't read. I'm currently "reading" 3 other books [1 NF, 1 audio, 1 F on my Kindle] so I'll wait to start Two Cities until the club start.

Becky, the citations please, I sent you a couple of PMs, thanks. Bookcover, author's photo when available and always the author's link. For every book and author.

Marilee wrote: "I had downloaded a free version to my Kindle last year, but hadn't read it yet. I'm looking forward to it, as this is one of the few Dickens novels I hadn't read. I'm currently "reading" 3 other bo..."

Hi Merilee - glad you got the book - next time please use the proper citation method - book and author photo and link.
Like this:
by Charles Dickens

In fact, while I'm here - we need proper citations from everyone on every post every time you want to say the name of a book or author. Please use the correct citations. Like this
by Charles Dickens

Thank you Becky for the corrections. For those newbies who need assistance, they can always go to the Help Desk folders and get some needed very detailed directions from the Mechanics of the Board thread.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

And of course the assisting mods can help too.

Folks, there are many free ways to download or read this book on line.

Here is another one:

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/22/a-tale-o...

Both an ebook and mp3s (audio too)

Folks, the event notification is up; please make sure to let us know on that thread who will be joining Becky for this discussion: (just select yes and the team will know of your interest and participation). I know a few of you said you were getting the book already on this thread and we welcome you to the discussion which begins in four days.

http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/2...

I'm ahead. I hope that isn't a problem. I've just started Book II Chapter VIII Monseigneur in the Country.

Well it is if you are putting information about future chapters in non spoiler weekly ones. But you can place spoilers in the glossary thread and the book as a whole thread. Or make sure that your comments are specific to the page numbers being discussed at the time or for pages already discussed.

I am ahead too Thom, I am going to be careful to keep comments relevant to where the group are up to.

Terrific Mandy thank you.

Is it just the Penguin version (the one I have) that has chapters 1 through 15 in book 3? In writing the syllabus into my calendar I noticed they are numbered differently. I guess it doesn't matter much though, the names are the same :)

Each book has its own chapter numbers. Book 1 has chapters 1-6, Book 2 has chapters 1-24 and Book 3 has chapters 1-15. I suppose the Penguin edition could be numbered differently. On the Goodreads e-book site, after you open the cover, you can click in the upper left corner to see the contents.

http://www.goodreads.com/reader/496-a...

Hope this helps.

Ah, okay. I was wondering because the syllabus is not numbered that way (i.e. Week 9, The Grindstone is listed as XVI, rather than II of Book 3).

I'm not understanding something. As far as I can see, the Syllabus matches the Table of Contents in the Goodreads book except I used Roman numerals like in my e-book edition. (Maybe the Penguin edition is different?)

by

(Book the Second)
GR Book: Chapter 9 - The Gorgon’s Head
Syllabus: IX. The Gorgon's Head

(Book the Third)
GR Book: Chapter 2 - The Grindstone
Syllabus: II. The Grindstone


The only XVI in the Syllabus is for Book the Second: Still Knitting

This is what I see. Could it be a server thing?

Week Nine - April 2 - April 8
(pages 256 - 283)
XVI. The Grindstone 256
XVII. The Shadow 262
XVIII. Calm in Storm 267
XIX. The Wood-Sawyer 272
XX. Triumph 278

Week Ten - April 9 - April 15
(pages 284 - 312)
XXI. A Knock at the Door 284
XXII. A Hand at Cards 289
XXIII. The Game Made 301

Week Eleven - April 16 - April 22
(pages 313 - 338)
XXIV. The Substance of the Shadow 313
XXV. Dusk 327
XII. Darkness 331

Week Twelve - April 23 - April 29
(pages 339 - 368)
XIII. Fifty-two 339
XIV. The Knitting Done 350
XV. The Footsteps Die Out Forever 362

Found it! The Chapter numbers in the Third Book (Week 8) start with I but the next chapter in Week 9 is XVI.

I think that can get corrected pretty pronto. (Server error - heh! My bad. )

Thank you! :-)

Syllabus Correction
The chapter numbers in the Syllabus got entered wrong (by me). This is the way they should go. The above official Syllabus will be corrected asap.

****

Week Eight - March 26 - April 1
(pages 225 - 255)
XXVIII. Fire Rises 225
XXIV. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock 231
Book the Third—the Track of a Storm
I. In Secret 248

****
Week Nine - April 2 - April 8
(pages 256 - 283)
II. The Grindstone 256
III. The Shadow 262
IV Calm in Storm 267
V. The Wood-Sawyer 272
VI. Triumph 278

****

Week Ten - April 9 - April 15
(pages 284 - 312)
VII. A Knock at the Door 284
VIII. A Hand at Cards 289
IX. The Game Made 301
****


Week Eleven - April 16 - April 22
(pages 313 - 338)
X. The Substance of the Shadow 313
XI. Dusk 327
XII. Darkness 331

****

Week Twelve - April 23 - April 29
(pages 339 - 368)
XIII. Fifty-two 339
XIV. The Knitting Done 350
XV. The Footsteps Die Out Forever 362

****

Week Thirteen - April 30 – May 6
Book as a whole - Final Thoughts

Thanks for your patience.