A Tale Of Two Cities, Four Month Read Along. (Title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[DesdamonasHandkerchief]

Welcome to a 6 month read along of Dicken’s 12th novel A Tale of Two Cities
We will be reading it using the following format, and discussing the chapters on the first day of the following month: (So January chapters discussed from 1st Feb onwards etc)

A Tale of Two Cities

6-Month Read-Along Calendar

Start: 1 January 2026
Finish: 30 June 2026

🗓️
JANUARY 2026

Book the First: Recalled to Life
(Chapters 1–7)

✔ Book the First complete

🗓️
FEBRUARY 2026

Book the Second: The Golden Thread
(Chapters 1–6)

🗓️
MARCH 2026

Book the Second: The Golden Thread
(Chapters 7–12)

✔ Midway through Book the Second

🗓️
APRIL 2026

Book the Second: The Golden Thread
(Chapters 13–18)

🗓️
MAY 2026

Book the Second: The Golden Thread
(Chapters 19–24)

✔ Book the Second complete

🗓️
JUNE 2026

Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
(Chapters 1–15)

✔ Novel complete

I know very little about this book other than its set in revolutionary Paris and London, let’s hope it’s a goodie!

Just caught up - I find Lucie bland too, but then I don’t find Dickens’ heroines particularly interesting characters. I can cope with Agnes in David Copperfield, but I found Esther in Bleak House particularly irritating when being compared to an old woman fairly frequently. I used to think that this was a Victorian man problem (as the Brontë sisters and Elizabeth Gaskell all write interesting women, whereas Anthony Trollope also writes fairly bland heroines from what I have read), but reading this book made me realise that while Dickens is excellent at describing real life situations (like the coach journey), his characters aren’t realistic as the best ones are all exaggerated in some way. Unfortunately, if you are an angel, then there is nothing to exaggerate, which just doesn’t suit Dickens’ style of characterisation and as a result, I don’t feel particularly invested in Lucie’s part of the story.

That said, I am really enjoying the Mme Defarge chapters, especially the knitting and the rose in her hair. @cassandre- that is a really interesting observation about Dickens using words & word order that correspond to the French - I will be looking out for that in the next section. I also like the Lady Macbeth comparison.

@SydneyCarton- I am surprised that Ladybird abridged / retold the book for children given how bloodthirsty it is, but the illustrations are great. Ladybird had some fantastic illustrators. Then again, I remember watching a documentary years ago about Ladybird, which explained that their history series was written from the view of making friends from history even though it included figures like Henry VIII (whom nobody would really want as a friends) so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.