Another great classic. It took me quite some time to get into the book, but once I was about half way through I couldn't put it down.
In one book Dickens was able to dispel any romantic notion I ever had of the proletariat rising against the bourgeoisie and making a better world for everyone. Basically my new theory is that power in any one's hands is dangerous and intoxicating and will only lead to bad acts. What is better: A feudal system with people basically as slaves, or a regime that beheads every person of privilege regardless of their actions? Is there no happy middle ground?!?
The book was full of interesting, complex, and truly memorable characters. Sydney Carton, who gives his life for a friend and utters the memorable line "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." Madame Defarge, who I mistakenly believed at the beginning was going to do something good, and she turns out to be the true evil character, stuck with an old grudge and willing to eliminate anyone in her way. And of course Lucie Manette, every Dickens novel has to have the "golden-haired doll" and she is the idea of perfection and all that is good in a book of utter chaos and evil.
If you haven't read it you should.
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