A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens. 1859.

The first scene of A Tale of Two Cities involves a carriage full of mail making its way up a muddy hill. It is cold, the mud is very deep, the horses are tired. It is slow going, agonizing work. This is what it felt like to read most of this novel. Dickens' writing style involves a great deal of flourish. It took effort to get through.

In the end I was glad I made the journey, as all the hard work more than paid off. Among other effects, the stylized prose sets up a tension that magnifies the impact of important turns in the story. There are three scenes specifically that are so amazing that I was left somewhat stunned after reading them. I can't even allude to them here for fear that I will spoil the experience. One of them is the very last chapter, especially the last 7-8 paragraphs.

A good example of what you would be getting into is the first paragraph. Most are aware of the first couple of lines, but not the entire paragraph it is part of (technically, it is only a single sentence). It is shown below in its entirety. Pay particular attention to the last couple of lines (emphasis mine):

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, 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, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. 

At least for me, figuring out what these lines were saying took some effort. I couldn't just immediately move onto the next paragraph. More to the point, it's a complex idea that is being expressed. It would be difficult to express the same idea in a simpler way, so it could be argued that it is not a 'style' element per se that I am referring to here. Dickens was a great thinker. It makes sense that following his ideas might be challenging.

The point is, there are a lot of paragraphs like this in this novel.

Here's a short summary of the plot that won't spoil anything. In fact, you might have an easier time getting to the good parts with this road map.

1. A man is unjustly imprisoned in the Bastille for many years. He is in solitary confinement for so long that he starts to lose his mind. A covert French revolutionary group somehow reclaims him, after the reason for his imprisonment is long forgotten and he is no longer considered to be a threat.
2. This man has a daughter. She has long ago considered him dead. A banker is assigned to find the old man's family. After he reunites the two of them, he becomes a family friend.
3. A French aristocrat has an interest in this bank, which causes the banker to come to his aid when he is put on trial. The banker hires a lawyer to defend him. The aristocrat and the lawyer, coincidentally, are very similar in appearance. This aids in the aristocrat being acquitted of the charges against him.
4. The aristocrat and the old man's daughter fall in love and get married. It is then discovered that the aristocrat's family is responsible for the old man's imprisonment, which leads him to the aristocrat being imprisoned. By this time, the French Revolution is in full swing. Any aristocrats, and anybody with any connections to aristocrats, are being guillotined. The lawyer, again, comes to the aristocrats aid.

In my mind, the narrative is not really what this novel is about. The narrative is a vehicle for something else.

Christian themes appear frequently in the novel. Dickens was raised in the Anglican church, but later adopted Unitarianism. He frequently criticized Christian Churches for not living up to their stated ideals, especially in their treatment towards the poor. For these reasons, it is more philosophical than religious when Dickens raises Christian themes. It is also more subtle.

Vengeance / Forgiveness

Dickens' heroes selflessly sacrifice for the people they love. Dickens' villains seek vengeance on their enemies. Any reader of A Tale of Two Cities will undoubtedly want vengeance on the entitled French aristocracy after the first half of the novel. This reader, after having finished the novel, will also undoubtedly want vengeance on the ruthless French revolutionaries that give the aristocrats what is coming to them. By the time it was done, so much evil had been done with so little discretion, that it is hard to see the positive effects it had. It is hard not to sympathize with the aristocrats, even in their cruelty.

Just when it appears there is hope that the people are being liberated from the forces of evil, it becomes clear that those doing the liberating may not be any better than what they replaced. This is the cycle of vengeance on a large scale. The only thing that may stop the cycle is forgiveness. Of course, forgiveness doesn't claim to be able to resolve the original wrongdoing. So it less compelling to those in power. The people demand justice, and vengeance claims to be able to right what was wrong. The fact that vengeance cannot do this only becomes clear later.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was a contemporary of Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Lowell wrote a poem in the mid 19th century that refers to this concept. The poem, The Present Crisis, has a couple of lines in the stanzas below many will recognize.

Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn this iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—
"They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin."

The French Revolution was part of the Age of Enlightenment, a cultural transformation in Western culture that created or set in motion many of the conditions of life we consider to be unique to the modern era. Secular government, free market principles, personal liberty, social mobility, all have their roots in the Age of Enlightenment. In Europe, the implementation of these values into society largely began with the French Revolution.

Dickens seems to be making the point that despite the positive changes that took place in society following it, the violence of the French Revolution was pointless and shameful. Humanity can be proud of many things during that era, but they were actions taken between families and individuals on each others behalf. The progress of society is less important than the progress of human beings, which happens despite violent revolution in the background, not because of it.

The City of God / The Earthly City

St. Augustine (354-430) was a spiritual leader and philosopher. He was baptized and converted to Christianity at the age of 33, after which he eventually became a Bishop. His writings significantly influenced Christianity. One of his books, City of God, describes his view of the best humanity can achieve and the worst acts it can commit. To do so he uses two metaphors: the city of God and the earthly City. These "cities" are all around us and in constant conflict. From the book:

Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, "Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."

In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength."

Dickens' novel was about Paris and London, and he is clearly not saying that one is good and one is bad, or that one influenced the other to revolt. In other words, one is not the City of God and the other is not the opposite. In fact, very little of London is necessarily involved in the story. He is not trying to draw a distinction between those two literal cities. The title more appropriately refers to the distinction between the two metaphorical cities in Augustine's work.

In Dickens' novel, the characters live in the City of God when they care for each other, sacrifice for each other and defend each other. These actions lift them out of their surroundings, protecting them, and in the case of two characters, giving them a kind of second life. Meanwhile the Earthly City rages against itself all around them.