All 2 entries tagged Dickens

A Tale Of Two Cities

So, yesterday I finally finished "A Tale Of Two Cities". The book took its time to convince me that it's a great read but it managed to do that after about 1/3 of it. I really got hooked up at the third part when Charles went to Paris. The whole Paris arc is just extremely thrilling. And Sydney's sacrifice in the end ... omg!!! Though I could already guess what his intentions were when he first appeared in the Paris arc. In secondary school we spent almost a whole year on the history of the French Revolution and though I knew how violent those times were it was quite scaring to read Dickens account of the Jacobiner dictatorship... La Sainte Guillotine eww.

On the back of the book it is claimed to be a "wonderful love story" and though that is true for the 3rd part of the book I was wondering while reading the first two parts when the story will be a love story because it wasn't then. All in all I enjoyed the book but it won't be my most favourite Dickens. However I recommend reading it.

After having put "A Tale Of Two Cities" aside I immediately started on "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte which was recommended to me by my flatmate Rachel who's studying English Literature. So far it's, well, interesting though I have my problems with her style of writing. I'm not a native English speaker so the parts of Josephs' speech are mainly beyond me. More about that book next time. :D

: 08 Feb 2008 18:48 |  Tags: Book Dickens |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Great Expectations

Last Saturday I finished reading "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. At the beginning I wasn't really convinced that it'd be a good read but it actually turned out to be a great read!!! And it really got me thinking. Pip's whole life stands and falls with his expectations. Though that might seem a little bit exaggerated as to be applicable in reality it is not! when I get up in the morning I have certain expectations as to what will happen that day. Not so much as in what events will take place but rather what I will feel when these events are happening. Say e.g. there's a social planned for the evening. Then I have specific expectations as to who will come, how the mood will be and whether it will be a good evening or not. I base my expectations mainly on my own mood. So when I get up cranky and tired I don't expect the day to turn out that great. Just before I'll have to leave then for the social I'll have the feeling that it might probably better not to go at all. I don't feel like going. But as I already promised to come I'll go. And tadahhh: the evening usually turns out to be a great one. My expectations weren't met. And that happens again and again. Usually when my expectations are rather great for an evening they aren't met as well, i.e. the evening turns out quite disappointing, not necessarily bad but just not as good as I'd have thought it'd be. It's so interesting to investigate how my life is influenced by my expectations about certain things. It'd definitely be more easy if I wouldn't constantly expect things to turn out in this or that way. It'd have saved me quite a bit of disappointment in life so far. Especially when it comes to guys. I guess my expectations on guys are extremly high and it'll be a small wonder if there'll ever be a guy who'll me at least part of them. However I definetely recommend reading "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. At the moment I'm reading "A Tale of Two Cities", another Dickens. I've only read about 50 pages so far and I can already say that after "Great Expectations" this book is (so far) not meeting my high expectations on a book by Dickens. Well there are some 310ish pages left so that judgement might be subject to change.

: 23 Jan 2008 23:22 |  Tags: Book Dickens |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem