Well, Jen C and all other interested parties, I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities!! I loved it. Sydney Carton may be my new literary crush.
I have to confess that up to this point, I had not been a Dickens fan. I'm going to blame this on the abysmal experience I had with Oliver Twist, which was taught to me in a graduate course by a man who held his piece of chalk like a cigarette in one hand and his egg salad sandwich in the other while he lectured from his yellowed-with-age notes.
Dickens redeemed himself with me with Tale of Two Cities. (I'm sure he wasn't "resting easy" in his grave because of my previous dislike of him.) Sure, sometimes I said, "Get on with it, Charles" whenever he launched into his lengthy descriptions, but the story--oh, the story--is wonderful. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
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I'm so glad you understand my passion for Sydney C. now! :) He RULES!!!
I'm so glad my class is starting this this week. I wonder how many kids will like it...
When he looks at the sleeping Lucie and says, "A life you love..." Be still my heart. :)
I would say that about half of my students (in my one honors class) are reading it. They seem to like it and say it is much better than GREAT EXPECTATIONS, which they apparently read last year. The other half are unsuccessfully trying to get by with Spark Notes because they automatically dismissed it after the first page. (And one might argue that these students should not be in Honors, but alas...)
Oh, and yes, Jen, what this means is I was managing to stay about ten chapters ahead of them as I taught this. (They just started Book 3.) I excuse myself of this kind of practice the first time I teach a class. :)
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