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Not Even Past

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

By H.W. Brands 

The best historical novel I’ve ever read is Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. It helps that Dickens is one of my favorite writers, and that the French revolution afforded a wonderfully dramatic context for him to display his story-telling skills.

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 It also helped Dickens that he had at hand Thomas Carlyle’s non-fictional The French Revolution, which is one of the most stirring works of history ever written. Add Dickens’s unique skills of characterization and a satisfyingly intricate plot and the result is that rare nineteenth century work that even the jaded modern reader can’t put down. ‘Tis a far, far better thing’ than almost any other work of its genre (readers will appreciate that oft-quoted line by the end of the book).

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Photo Credits

artist unknown, bust of Charles Dickens, 1867

J. Gurney & Son, Library of Congress 

 

Posted November 15, 2011 More 1800s, Books, Europe, Fiction, Periods, Regions, Topics

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