Someone get the guillotine

Literary website The Second Pass has the ever-loving gall to suggest that A Tale of Two Cities be "fired from the canon":

No country was more foreign to Dickens’ sensibility than France. No event was more antithetical to his imagination than the French Revolution. So it’s unsurprising that A Tale of Two Cities makes for such an odd and uninspiring read.

I'll go out on a limb here and make a prediction: A Tale of Two Cities will still be inspiring people worldwide centuries after The Second Pass has been forgotten.

(Link courtesy of the LA Times)

Comments

[Marian]

"odd and uninspiring"?!! If the ending doesn't inspire, what does?

[christopher harris]

Well, it will be heretical to some here (if not all), but I agree with the assessment from the "Second Pass". I have read all of 'em, and two of my least favorite novels are "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities". Just remember, that each reader is different, and each reader finds his/her favorite Dickens novels in different ways. Personally, I find the rich and complex characters and plotting of "Dombey and Son", "Bleak House", "Little Dorrit", and "Our Mutual Friend" to be near perfection. My 'Big Four' are followed, quite closely, by "Martin Chuzzlewit", "Nicholas Nickleby", and "David Copperfield". Will I read GE and ATOTC again sometime? You betcha!

[Gina]

I'm knitting your name into my register as we speak, Chris. ;-)

Seriously, I think one can prefer certain Dickens novels over others, without going so far as to say that one's least favorite deserves to be dropped from the Western literary canon, which is what they were arguing.

[Marian]

"Seriously, I think one can prefer certain Dickens novels over others, without going so far as to say that one's least favorite deserves to be dropped from the Western literary canon, which is what they were arguing."

Exactly. Just because some readers don't get anything out of it doesn't mean others won't (as Christopher Harris says, each reader is different). When I tried reading Moby Dick, I read till about half-way, thought that the book deviated quite a bit from the plot in places, and didn't finish it; but I would hardly "fire it from the canon" or call it "a failure".

[Nibs]

I somewhat agree with Chris that the fame of A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations is a bit disproportional, as those two novels are not quite demonstrative of Dickens' usual style and plot skill; and because of the focus on those two, other equally good if not better novels tend to get overlooked. Also like Chris, those are two of my least favorite Dickens novels - my "Big Four" would be David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, and Martin Chuzzlewit. However like Gina said, it doesn't mean they need to be kicked out of canon - just maybe they need to be promoted less. :)

[christopher harris]

Well, there you are; a perfect cross-section of perspectives on Dickens' oeuvre!

A more horrifying omission - Have a look at Newsweek Magazine's recent "Top 100" list, no Dickens novel made the list. Now, I ask, how the heck can that be? Not one! I was gobsmacked, to say the least. How can "Catcher In the Rye", or "Portnoy's Complaint" be there, but no Dickens? I am absolutely at a loss for words... Cheers! Chris

[Rob Velella]

"A Tale of Two Cities" isn't my first choice for Dickens so even if it made this list of works to avoid, take comfort that dozens of other classic Dickens works were spared. But, really, Kerouac's "On The Road" being a book to avoid? C'mon...

I'll agree with an earlier comment, by the way, that Newsweek's recent Top 100 is shameful!

[Christy]

Aside from "A Christmas Carol," which should be required for all parents to read to their children at Christmastime, "A Tale of Two Cities" was the first Dickens book I ever read. I read it probably when I was somewhere between 12 and 15, ten years before I ever read any other Dickens book, and I have reread it periodically ever since. I consider it an incredible story and the tale of Sydney Carton's redemption as one of the most inspiring stories I know.
On the other hand, there may be something seriously wrong with me, because I've never been able to get into "David Copperfield."

[Luanne]

I just finished A Tale of Two Cities and have a question. Dickens depicted the plight of England's poor with such pathos and precision. His depiction of the French poor is not so sympathetic. What I mean is he tends to idealize England's poor, while giving us a negative look at the poor in ATOTC. What do you think?

[Gina]

Luanne, welcome to the blog! Here's my (very condensed) take on this subject. Others are welcome to weigh in as well.

I think that Dickens's sympathies always tended to lie with the oppressed, whoever they were. At the beginning of the novel, you can tell that he feels for the poor -- the father whose son is killed, the people of St. Antoine, the woman who begs for a gravestone for her husband, all of them. But something shifts during the course of the Revolution. Those members of the lower class who are bloodthirsty and vengeful turn the tables and become oppressors themselves. And knowing what they went through, it's hard to blame them for being filled with bitterness and resentment.

But I think Dickens's larger point is that bloodthirstiness will always cause suffering and always corrupt the bloodthirsty, no matter how justified it may seem to us. Yes, some of the guilty are punished, but at the same time innocent people are again made to suffer, just as in the first part of the novel. The only difference is in who's causing the suffering this time. Look how Madame Defarge thinks she's justified in trying to kill Charles, Lucie, their child, and Dr. Manette, none of whom ever did her or her family any harm.

To sum it up, I think Dickens is saying, don't take vengeance into your own hands, lest you get carried away.

[Christy]

Very, very excellent points. Makes me think Dickens might have liked Orwell's "Animal Farm."

[christopher harris]

Gina, I think you have the right of it with your comment. The moral of ATOTC, to me, is just like the moral that Dumas tries to impart with his novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" (not as eloquently as Dickens, mind you). Cheers! Chris

[Christy]

Yes, Dumas does just kind of shoe-horn it into the end, doesn't he? As much as I love "The Count of Monte Cristo" (it's one of my favorite books), it's just that little note that keeps me from wanting to smack Dantes.

[Scrabcake]

Wut?
BOO HISS!
Tale of Two Cities always gets the short end of the stick from critics and a lot of Dickens aficionados. (I got a BBC boxed set of all of Dickens' novels as films last year for Christmas...except for Christmas Carol and Tale of Two Cities. Christmas Carol I can understand. It's not really a full novel, but COME ON!)
I realize this is blasphemy, but Tale of Two Cities is my favourite novel ever, and I'm really just kind of disappointed to lukewarm with the rest of Dickens (at least with the things I've read). I don't *like* the comedic Dickens, because I feel that his comedy has aged badly. I also have a really hard time relating to the culture of Victorian England. To me it seems like one of the most stifling eras of history.
I imagine that if you are a Dickens geek, his comedy appeals to you, and if what you like of Dickens is his larger-than-life characters, his humour,and his portrayal of Victorian England you will find Tale of Two Cities very disappointing and boring. I can see why the last fifty years of the Dickensian only have a handful of articles on it. The typical Dickens fan is really not its ideal demographic.

[Gina]

"I can see why the last fifty years of the Dickensian only have a handful of articles on it."

Do tell. I've actually been thinking of doing a piece on ATOTC for them. I wonder if the lack of other pieces on it may make them more likely to consider it. Hmm.

As for your feelings about the rest of Dickens, no worries. Dickensians of all sorts are welcome, even lukewarm ones.

[Nibs]

I actually feel that AToTC and Great Expectations are the Dickensian novels discussed the MOST, along with Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. In my school curriculum all we ever heard about were GE (the only Dickens I was required to read) and Tale. I think these novels are really the ones most people read, even if they aren't the ones most frequently discussed by scholars (and I personally see a fair number of writings about both).
As for the style, I didn't like ATOTC and liked other Dickens books better, whereas my mother loved ATOTC and was bored by all the rest. Tale is really very different from the other Dickens books.