A Tale of Two Cities, Book One (Teacher Talk. Comment if you'd like, otherwise you may want to skip)

I made an agreement with Amy (whom I've never met, by the way...isn't the internet cool?) that we would read A Tale of Two Cities at the same time and keep eachother going with it. She's also an English teacher and about the same age, so we are separated at birth and all that. Why don't YOU (everyone else) grab the book and start. You can catch up very easily. So, Amy, here are my thoughts on our first agreed upon reading (Book One):

First of all, VERY HARD to get interested in this one for the first five pages. This will be a roadblock for our students. I am planning to include this somehow in my honors classes, either as a lit circle book or just whole class.

I love Great Expectations and started comparing this book to that one almost immediately, with the "Halloas!" and all that. Then I started feeling very Les Miserables when the character Mr. Lorry started telling Miss Manette (shades of Cosette?) about her mom who died (shades of Fantine?) and then BAM! He tells her that her daddy is still alive, but just released from prison. Prison..yep I'm in a Dickens novel. I liked the way Dickens presented the viewing of Monsier Manette up in the attic. It really was like I was there.

I liked the wine spilling out and the poor people soaking it up with their handkerchiefs and squeezing it into their mouths and stuff. Nice showing and not telling. ;)

I also liked coming across the word BLUNDERBUSS. Nice. Here's the definition because I had no idea either!