Welp. Yeah. I Cried.

Okay, guys. Charles Dickens is brilliant, kay? Kay. Like, the man should be king of the world or something. Between his AMAZING political views and the expressions that he makes in his writing and the pure flawlessness of his works, I WOULD TOTALLY VOTE FOR HIM AS KING. 

Anyway... HI, GUYS! I hope that you all had an absolutely lovely Christmas! I hope that it was 100% full of lots of chocolate, books, socks, and tea... Because that sounds like perfection to me!

 I have been a very busy person lately, with the holiday season and school things. Buut my new favorite book is too good not to rant about. 

And my family is sick of hearing me crying. 

So. Yeah. 

Let's start at the very beginning... (A very good place to start.) About mid-November, I logged onto my school page to look at some upcoming assignments for the next couple of classes. I got distracted (of course) by the next couple books that I would be reading in the near future for my Great Conversation III class. Among the wonderful list of bookish galore, I caught the title, "A Tale of Two Cities". Okay, hold on... Here come the tears (AGAIN). And, folks, you KNOW it's good when saying the title makes me cry in anguish. 

I just noticed that this isn't really turning into a review. More of a story/rant. Oh well. 

Anywhozies, onto the details. Can we just appreciate this first line? Goals, lemmetellya. 

"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 the 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 – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Guys. Like, how do you even write like that? And when you look closely at the meaning of each statement during the exact time-period that Dickens was writing for.... It gives me chills. 

Now for the political side of things. My word, this author is brilliant? Did I mention that before? There are themes reiterated throughout the ENTIRE book. It takes true talent to reiterate real themes through a whole book. One biggie is the difference between the aristocracy and the impoverished. The interactions between the two classes gives one a solemnly accurate mental image of how things were in the days of the French Revolution. The other main theme is more spiritual than political. But it still does wonders to think about it in the light of what was going on during that period in time. That theme is resurrection. The irony of this theme kept me turning pages and aching from side-splitting laughter for hours on end. 

UGHHH I FEEL LIKE SUCH A BAD PERSON NOT TELLING YOU ALL DETAILS... But if I tell you, IT WILL RUIN THE STORY. *cries*

Another thing that kept me 

T

U

R

N

I

N

G

THE

P

A

G

E

S

(like what I did there?)

Is the amazing character development. Let's just say that there are a whole load of characters that keep you guessing through the whole story. It all makes sense in the end, it really does. But until then, you just have questions, questions, questions. The Manette family, the Defarges (blech), Charles Darnay, the Cruncher family, Miss Pross, Sydney Carton... I could go on and on. Sadly, if I did, you would kill me for ruining it. 

All I'm going to say is this: I will never look at knitting the same way. EVER. AGAIN. 

So... This blog post isn't really information... It's just ranting and begging you to read this amazing book by the master of authors. You will be amazed, believe me. 

Have you ever read A Tale of Two Cities? What about other Dickens' novels? 

Off to play awkward family games and gorge myself on sugar cookies and the veggie trays (bipolar, right?). 

Au Revoir, Vale, and goodbye! 

Merry Christmas!