Hello all.
A good start, yes? I thought so.
Some context:
ATOTC was written in 1859, sixty years after the French Revolution ended so the things he describes were in living memory for a few readers and recent history for all.
Chronologically it is late Dickens, appearing between Little Dorrit (1857) and Great Expectations (1860), with only Our Mutual Friend (1864) and the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) to come after that.
It was released during a period of personal turmoil for Dickens, including his separation from his wife, and it marks a departure from his usual contemporary, sprawling social commentary novels.
I made some notes on the first chapter, drawing on the footnotes in my edition to explain the sometimes random references:
So first of all, that opening paragraph with its famous juxtapositions, ‘It was the best of times it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…’
Despite the fact it becomes something of a word salad it certainly causes a tingle in the brain of any bookworm!
Definitely the most famous opening lines in Dickens extensive canon. I can only think of ‘Marley was dead to begin with’, ‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life’ … etc, and the spiel about why Pip was known as Pip that come anywhere close to its notoriety and recognisability. (If that’s a word!)
Dickens tells us his novel opens in 1775 and then goes on to reference the historical and cultural context of the time in both England and France, much of which has been lost in the mists of time for modern readers.
He includes references to the royal couples of George III and Charlotte Sophia of England, Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette of France.
The fact that the American Revolution was beginning is mentioned in passing.
Mrs Southcott, a farmer‘s daughter, who wrote many millennial prophecies which she began to publish in 1801 and a ‘prophetic private’ who was an earlier millennial prophet conflated from two separate records in the Annual Registrar are mentioned.
The Cock Lane ghost refers to the ghost of a murder victim which supposedly manifested itself by nocturnal disturbances at a house in Cock Lane, West Smithfield, London in 1762 - but was later exposed as a fraud. (Spiritual hoaxers were a London phenomenon of the 1850’s when Dickens was writing this novel.)
The printing of money in France is referenced, a government debt that is generally held to have precipitated the events that led to the revolution.
Harsh punishments, faithfully recorded by Dickens, for those who France deemed to have committed heresy are detailed, as is the shocking level of crime in England. (Plus ça change - as I read yet another article about the rise and rise in shop lifting and London being the phone theft capital of Europe!)
Back in the morning to discuss the rest of Book 1 but for now sleep beckons!