Tag Archives: A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

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A Tale of Two Cities QuotesQuotes from A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities is the twelfth novel by Charles Dickens.  The book was published in weekly installments in All the Year Round. The first chapters of the book were published in April of 1859.  The last chapter was printed in November of that same year.

The book deals with the French revolution. It’s one of the two historical novels by Dickens.  Barnaby Rudge is the other.

The idea for the novel came from a production of The Frozen Deep.  In 1857 Dickens acted in the play and portrayed the character of Richard Wardour.  (Dickens was interested in the stage and sometimes performed in amateur productions.) In the play Wardour decides that he’s going to kill Frank Aldersley because Frank stole his true love, Clara Burnham.  Instead Wardour saves Aldersley’s life at the cost of his own.  Wardour dies in Clara’s arms and earns her eternal gratitude for saving the life of the man that she loves.

In addition to giving Dickens the idea for A Tale of Two Cites, the play brought about lasting changes to Dickens’s life.  Professional actresses were hired to act in a benefit production of The Frozen Deep.  One of them was Ellen Ternan.  She became Dickens’s mistress.  Their affair lasted until Dickens’s death in 1870.

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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. ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Five Facts about Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 and died in 1870.  He’s the author of A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and other classic novels.  Now here are some things you may not know about Charles Dickens.

1 – As a child, his family was always on the verge of economic collapse. Everything fell apart for the family in 1827. Dickens’ father was sent the Marshalsea debtors’ prison and young Charles was sent to work in Warren’s Blacking Factory. These incidents would haunt Dickens for the rest of his life.

2 – Dickens worked as law clerk, a court stenographer and even contemplated becoming an actor. Luckily for us, Dickens was ill on the day of his audition at the Lyceum Theater and couldn’t go. Can you imagine a life without Scrooge?  If Dickens, who was a talented actor, had attended his audition he might not have written A Christmas Carol.

3 – In his early writing he called himself Boz. Boz? You see, one of his favorite characters in Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield was called Moses. Moses became Boses which became Boz.

4 – Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1835. There were some happy years, but in 1958 they were legally separated. One of the reasons for the separation was Dickens’ interest in the actress, Ellen Ternan.

Dickens met Ellen in 1857. Matters came to a head the next year when a bracelet that Dickens bought as a present for Ellen was accidentally delivered to the Dickens household. In a scene straight from a soap opera, Catherine discovered the bracelet and accused Charles of having an affair.

5 – One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Dickens is that he understood the power of the media. Yes, even in the Victorian Era people had to worry about the press. In September of 1860, behind his home at Gad’s Hill Place, Charles Dickens tried to cover his tracks. He gathered “the accumulated letters and papers of twenty years” and set them ablaze in his backyard. What could we have learned had he not taken this action? We’ll never know.

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The Novels of Charles Dickens Mug

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Is someone on your holiday shopping list a fan of Charles Dickens?  If so, may I humbly suggest you visit the Charles Dickens section of the LitQuotes Gift Shop.  One of the most popular items in the Charles Dickens section is the Novels of Charles Dickens mug.   One side features the image of the ever-popular author  of A Christmas Carol.

Charles Dickens Mug

 

The other side lists the titles of his novels.

The Novels of Charles Dickens Mug

 

 

5 Quotes About Autumn From Literature

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Today is the first day of autumn. To mark the day, here’s a fun collection of five autumnal quotes from literature.

“Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings.” ~ The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels. ~ Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. ~ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The place, with its gray sky and withered garlands, its bared spaces and scattered dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance–all strewn with crumpled playbills. ~ The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

He lowered the window, and looked out at the rising sun. There was a ridge of ploughed land, with a plough upon it where it had been left last night when the horses were unyoked; beyond, a quiet coppice-wood, in which many leaves of burning red and golden yellow still remained upon the trees. Though the earth was cold and wet, the sky was clear, and the sun rose bright, placid, and beautiful. ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Autumn Quotes

Autumn Quotes from Literature

Them’s Fightin’ Words – Five Anger Quotes From Literature

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“Tell Wind and Fire where to stop,” returned madame; “but don’t tell me.” ~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
I could set my ten commandments in your face. ~ Henry VI, Part Two by William Shakespeare

“How beautiful you are! You are more beautiful in anger than in repose. I don’t ask you for your love; give me yourself and your hatred; give me yourself and that pretty rage; give me yourself and that enchanting scorn; it will be enough for me.” ~ The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

“Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it.” ~ The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” ~ Moby Dick by Herman Melville

More Anger Quotes From Literature

Anger Quotes from Liternature

 

 

 

10 Dickens Quotes on his 201st Birthday

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Charles DickensToday marks the 201st anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.  To mark the event I thought I’d share 10 of my favorite Dickens quotes:

  1. Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ~  Great Expectations

  2. At last, in the dead of the night, when the street was very still indeed, Little Dorrit laid the heavy head upon her bosom, and soothed her to sleep. And thus she sat at the gate, as it were alone; looking up at the stars, and seeing the clouds pass over them in their wild flight–which was the dance at Little Dorrit’s party. ~  Little Dorrit

  3. “If you could see my legs when I take my boots off, you’d form some idea of what unrequited affection is.”  ~  Dombey and Son

  4. “It’s in vain, Trot, to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.”  ~  David Copperfield

  5. All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else’s manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!  ~  Great Expectations

  6. “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!” ~  A Christmas Carol

  7. 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. ~  A Tale of Two Cities

  8. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. ~  David Copperfield

  9. “Its matter was not new to me, but was presented in a new aspect. It shook me in my habit – the habit of nine-tenths of the world – of believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it.” ~  Dombey and Son

  10. “No one is useless in this world,” retorted the Secretary, “who lightens the burden of it for any one else.” ~  Our Mutual Friend

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