"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens - Done

What a great read. Aside from having a title that hopefully Biship Spooner never went near, there are:

Ten things I never want to forget about this book:

Jerry Cruncher's crude yet flawless dignity.

How Doctor Manette's self-reliance crumbles when his success is for naught.

That the gratitude Charles Darnay must feel toward Sydney Carton is the gratitude I must feel toward Another who did the same for me, and that I must tell my children "the story with a tender and faltering voice."

How badly I misjudged Sydney Carton based on this: "Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him and resigning himself to let it eat him away." When I read that of Carton, I swore I would not trust this character a bit. Whoops.

How badly I misjudged Madame Defarge. I liked her at first, solid no nonsense kind of woman. Whoops.

How wicked and ugly vengeance can be.

That Dickens is hard to get into, but once in, so worth it. After three chapters, I couldn't put it down.

The sickness I felt when it became clear that Charles Darnay was going back to France.

Great opening: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…"

Greater closing: "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."

Outstanding!