A Book Report of A Tale of Two Cities
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The first time I saw the name of the book A Tale of Two Cities, I just wonder why it named in this way. Its name greatly draws my attention. What do two cities refer to? Is a novel about love or adventure? And what does the novel want to tell us? With these questions, I started to read this book.
While I opened this book, I was surprised that the book was about the condition of French people before and during the Revolution. In fact, I was not very interested in historical novels for this kind of novel is really difficult for me to understand. I still forced myself to read the whole book for the very beginning part “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 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…for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” I was greatly touched by above words moment I read it. It fixed any period of past or present time. Despair where the words came, it was much meaningful and philosophic. There were two different kinds of attitudes, for good or for evil. No matter what condition you were, it was your attitude towards life that mattered. Attitudes to life vary from person to person. A day for good is ok or a day for evil is just so-so. Why not take an optimistic attitude towards our life?
But I had merely slight impression with the plot of this novel. It was approximately about the war, the hostility and the love. Dr. Manette, an old man, was picked up and sent to Bastille, because of knowing a terrible secret about noble Marquis St. Evremonde. But his only daughter Lucie Manette fell in love with Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis St. Evremonde, who abandoned the noble degree to live by himself. When the revolution of France broke out, Charles Darnay was denounced. Sydney Carton, the lawyer of England, was the family’s good friend and he loved Lucie, too. It was he finally been killed instead by his own mind.
In my perspective, it was a really sad story about love taking the revolution as background. I loved the tragic character Sydney Carton. I still remember it was Carton that first to see Miss Manette’s head dropped upon her father’s breast. He is such a generous man that he brought Mr. Darnay’s message to Miss Manette regardless his private emotion. However he never expressed his love to Miss Manette, and he also imagined he would be rejected even before confessing. So his only hope is to visit her and her family sometimes. He just wanted Miss Manette to have a happy life. He even could scarify his life for her. Finally, he really did. I really admired what he did for his “lover”, but he was self-abased for he never expressed his inner thoughts to others. He is alone. At last, Miss Manette and her family remembered what he did forever.
While I opened this book, I was surprised that the book was about the condition of French people before and during the Revolution. In fact, I was not very interested in historical novels for this kind of novel is really difficult for me to understand. I still forced myself to read the whole book for the very beginning part “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 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…for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” I was greatly touched by above words moment I read it. It fixed any period of past or present time. Despair where the words came, it was much meaningful and philosophic. There were two different kinds of attitudes, for good or for evil. No matter what condition you were, it was your attitude towards life that mattered. Attitudes to life vary from person to person. A day for good is ok or a day for evil is just so-so. Why not take an optimistic attitude towards our life?
But I had merely slight impression with the plot of this novel. It was approximately about the war, the hostility and the love. Dr. Manette, an old man, was picked up and sent to Bastille, because of knowing a terrible secret about noble Marquis St. Evremonde. But his only daughter Lucie Manette fell in love with Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis St. Evremonde, who abandoned the noble degree to live by himself. When the revolution of France broke out, Charles Darnay was denounced. Sydney Carton, the lawyer of England, was the family’s good friend and he loved Lucie, too. It was he finally been killed instead by his own mind.
In my perspective, it was a really sad story about love taking the revolution as background. I loved the tragic character Sydney Carton. I still remember it was Carton that first to see Miss Manette’s head dropped upon her father’s breast. He is such a generous man that he brought Mr. Darnay’s message to Miss Manette regardless his private emotion. However he never expressed his love to Miss Manette, and he also imagined he would be rejected even before confessing. So his only hope is to visit her and her family sometimes. He just wanted Miss Manette to have a happy life. He even could scarify his life for her. Finally, he really did. I really admired what he did for his “lover”, but he was self-abased for he never expressed his inner thoughts to others. He is alone. At last, Miss Manette and her family remembered what he did forever.