The Tale of Two cities
If there ever was a book which was the mother of all the soap operas, this is it. What else would you call a book, which was published in weekly installments for almost a year way before the discovery of radio, a hero who leaves aristocrats life in France to live incognito in England marries a plastic woman who didnt know her Dad, the Dad has a history and becomes mentally instable, another guy who resembles the hero and who eventually sacrifices his life and who loves hero’s woman , very plastic interactions between the main characters, a gravedigger, an evil woman who gets killed by the heroine’s nanny, the aristocrats, who derive pleasure in raping the lower classes and killing them, one of the aristocrats gets killed and the hero is to be executed for the aristocrat dad and uncle’s crimes based on the letter by his pa-in-law written a gazallion years ago, a historical revolution wherein people will kill anyone related to the aristocrats in any-which way and an abrupt end wherein coincidences come pouring down on you just from anywhere and everywhere as if the author just wanted to get over with it and move onto better things.
Having led such a scathing attack against one of the best authors in English, Charles Dickens, I will term this a great book to know the various intricacies of writing a novel. His culling various instances from history and religion, his use of symbolism, alliteration, hyberbole(sic), onomatopoeia, drama, repetition, philosophy and a great start and an equally great end makes this one of the greatest, but highly unDickensian, books.
Well the story goes like this . The story takes place in two highly comepting and contradictory environments, England and France in 1775. Lucie, the heroine of the story, has just been broken the news by Mr. Lorry that her father,Dr Mannette, who has been presumed dead is not dead. Both of them now go to France to rescue her father, who is is now held captive by the Defarges, who become one of the leaders of the French revolution , and bring him to England.
In other news in England, Darnay, another Frenchman, is accused of treason but is exonerated because of his resemblance to Carton, who works with the highly succesful and bombastic lawyer, Stryver. Now all these three guys vie for Lucie, who eventually succumbs to the charms of the Frenchman and gets married, but not before the frenchman reveals some of his antecedents to his pa-in-law, who is stunned to hear it, but decides to carry on.
Meanwhile the French revolution begins and the French see Tellsons bank where Mr Lorry works as a safe haven and Mr lorry is sent to France to safegaurd the property along with the secret gravedigger, Cruncher, as a bodyguard (very funny). Meanwhile Darnay gets a letter from Gabelle, the local tax collector and protector of Darnay’s ancestor’s place after the death of his family, urging to rescue him from prison and our hero Mr.Darnay decides to leave, but not before writing a letter to his wife Lucie and his pa-in-law, only to get arrested on his arrival. Now our own Dr. Mannette decides to take matters in his own hands and leaves for France with Lucie and Miss Pross in tow. Darnay is now acquitted after it is proven that he had relinquished his aristocratic title cos of the torturous nature of aristocarcy of his pa and uncle, only to be arrested again, on the basis of a letter written by Dr. Mannette a gazallion years ago in prison. Now he is tried for crimes committed by his dad and uncle. Rescue nowhere in sight and Mr. Darnay looks heading towards the guillitone. But wait, Mr. Dickens uses a concept called deus ex machina, meaning God out of machine, where one just puts logic in a box and chucks it out of the window. OK OK it means the author devises a lot many coincidences and contrivances to put an abrupt end to the mess he got himself into. In the end our Mr Carton, who resembles Darnay, switches with Darnay and takes the guillitone and everyone else escapes to England.
This story can be read off the internet at http://www.litrix.com/twocitys/twoci001.htm . Also read the start and end in one of my earlier posts
I wish all the soap opera writers learn deus ex machina from Dickens 
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