Grisham College Video Notes: A Tale of Two Cities

• wrote a play about love
• Turnens- fell in love with Ellen and left his wife for her
• Tale of Two Cities- Lucie- supposed to be based upon Ellen visually
• Wanted to name Sydney Richard at first
• 1858- began public reading for profit, became the greatest reader and writer to his fan
• May 1858- separated with his wife... "Domestic Trouble of mine"
• Tale of Two Cities was printed in different chapters
• Set in London and Paris
• Young Dickens worked as a child and saw some dark things as a child in London
• Wretchedness and darkness but great fascination in London
• Hard to write when he was away from London
• Hyped up about Paris
• Lived in political turmoil
• Paris was a great city to live in during Dicken's time
• Dicken's illustrator was long time and his pictures are deemed below his normal skill for Tale of Two Cities... difficulty with historical content
• If broken down, you can analyze his use of cliff hangers and the character/plot development through the story
• Historical, revolution, castles, execution, broken hearts
• authoritative voice