(no subject)

So I seem to vaguely remember from the last time one of those 100 Great Books/Classics/Randomly Chosen Pieces of Literature memes went out seeing a lot of Dickens hate around my reading list. And I kind of hunched my head over and felt awkward and lonely, because, while I totally get it . . . I kind of love Dickens? In that way where you love things that were written by middle-class dead white guys who were paid by the word, but also in that way where you love things that are built on a mixture of hilarious satire and hilarious sentimentality and memorable characters and people occasionally bursting spontaneously into flames.

For all my love, though, it has been a while since I've actually read any Dickens! And I actually missed out completely on A Tale of Two Cities in my youth, and it seemed to be the focal point of a lot of dislike at the time, so last week I decided to regress to high school and pick it back up.

A Tale of Two Cities is kind of weird, because the half that is set in London is pretty typical Dickens - satiric, witty, lots of banker and lawyer jokes - and the half that is set in Paris is all DOOM DOOM BLOOD DOOM TRAGEDY BLOOD MELODRAMA DID I MENTION DOOM. ( Some more thoughts, with mild spoilers. )

But okay, while I am on the topic of Dickens, I am kind of curious here, so:

[Poll #1604945]