TALE OF TWO CITIES LECTURE NOTES

• Manchester is the third city
• Dickens had a certain reason to write they novel, making it more personal
• Self Sacrifice theme came from a play based on a true story that Dickens saw
• Lucie is based on a woman named Ellen whom Dickens fell in love with
• The initials mattered in the book, DC/CD
• "Greatest Reader of the Greatest Writer of the age"
• He tries to show us that the streets of London and Paris are very similar to each other
• "Everyone has the same fate and it is hard to come to terms with that"
• Dickens (like most Victorians) feared riots and mob rule
• Started off as monthly editions with a few chapters and illustrations which explains the cliffhangers and the "creative flow" of the novel
• Because of the popularity a volume edition appeared (Dicken's illustrator thought that he was above Dickens
• Very widespread publishing (numbers in the hundreds of thousands)
• Dickens' personal life played a large impact in this novel
• Carlye was his best friend
• Dickens called A Tale of Two Cities the "greatest story he had ever told"
• Sacrificing one's life was seen as the ultimate sign of love by Dickens (clearly)
• Dr. Tony Williams is very passionate about A Tale of Two Cities and Charles Darwin as a man and an author