It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Long time readers won't be surprised at how much thought I gave to what books I was going to bring with me last week. It was tricky. I had a lot of things I needed to take along which meant there really wasn't room for the usual four or five books I typically bring along. I also really dislike running out of books to read. (I must interject here that this concern was actually ridiculous because there are plenty of books at my brother-in-law's.) I think I came up with a pretty brilliant solution. 

A Tale of Two Cities has been on my shelf to read for a while. What could be more perfect than a long and dense novel in a mass paperback form? I knew that even taking plans rides into consideration I wouldn't be able to finish it before returning home. (I'm almost halfway done for those who are curious.) 

I am really enjoying it. Dickens knows how to tell a good story. There have been a couple of times when something would happen and I thought to myself, "Well, I didn't see that coming." Plus, I really enjoy Dicken's way with words. I mean, how can you not like a sentence such as this: "Thus it had come to pass, that Tellson's [the bank] was the triumphant perfection of inconvenience." 

It also feels a little too topical at times, though. A good example is the description of the hangers-on of the Monseigneur who inhabits the upper echelons of the court of Louis XVI. (This is set at the time of the French Revolution remember.)

"Military officers destitute of military knowledge; naval officers with no idea of a ship; civil officers without a notion of affairs; brazen ecclesiastics, of the worst world worldly, with sensual eyes, loose tongues, and looser lives; all totally unfit for their several callings, all lying horribly in pretending to belong to them, but all nearly or remotely of the order of the Monseigneur, and therefore foisted on all public employments from which anything was to be got; these were to be told off by the score and the score. People not immediately connected with Monseigneur or the State, yet equally unconnected with anything that was real, or with lives passed in traveling by any straight road to any true  earthly end, were no less abundant. Doctors who made great fortunes out of dainty remedies for imaginary disorders that never existed, smiled upon their courtly patients in the ante-chambers of Monseigneur.  ,,,[he continues on in this vein for a while]...

The leprosy of unreality disfigured every creature in attendence upon Monseigneur. In the outermost room were half a dozen exceptional people who had had, for a few years, some vague misgiving in them that things in general were going rather wrong.  ...[more descriptions of the types of people surrounding the Monseigneur]...

But, the comfort was, that all the company at the grand hotel of Monseigneur were perfectly dressed." (from Book the Second, chapter 7)

This is only one example of the lunacy of the ruling class which Dickens often contrasts with the desperation of the non-elite class. It can be painful to read, but oh, so familiar at the same time. I'm caught up in the story, but knowing a general outline of what is to come makes me feel a little trepidation. 



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