Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
I've been reading 'A Tale of Two Cities' this week. Dickens isn't a writer, like Hardy, that I've been especially steeped in before. I read 'Hard Times' a couple of years ago, partly because I was interested in the idea of industrial aggro at the time (what an odd interest to declare for a then 19/20 year old...I probably kept it quiet.)

The novel begins with the famous contrast, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", between London and Paris of the late eighteenth century. The evocation of Paris as a teeming metropolis, on the edge of storm and ruin, and London as a semi-pastoral scene is one that perhaps nods towards the popular historical understanding of the period of the French Revolution. Paris is on the verge of one of the most bloody and chaotic periods of its history, while London has no popular revolution to be apprehended high on the horizon.

It's fascinating reading so far. At the moment, as a now ex-literature student (for the time-being, anyway) I'm trying to plug some of the gaps in my literary knowledge; the Victorian period is one I'm really interested in, but haven't really looked at in detail since my second year of University.