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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - pre-read discussion thread


chesilbeach

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We had a bit of a discussion earlier in the year about maybe reading A Tale of Two Cities as a group read which Janet reminded me of at the weekend.  I was thinking we could start in a couple of weeks, and would break it up into weekly/fortnightly instalments to read.
 
Ideally, we would read it in the same instalments as it was published, but I'm struggling to find anywhere that lists which chapters were published each week, so unless anyone else can find details from somewhere, we'll split up the chapters another way.
 
Would anyone be interested in taking part?

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I found this. 

 

Issue 1 – Book 1, Chapters 1 to 4

Issue 2 – Book 1, Chapters 5 to 6

Issue 3 – Book 2, Chapters 1 to 3

Issue 4 – Book 2, Chapters 4 to 6

Issue 5 – Book 2, Chapters 7 to 9

Issue 6 – Book 2, Chapters 10 to 13

Issue 7 – Book 2, Chapters 14 to 15

Issue 8 – Book 2, Chapters 16 to 18

Issue 9 – Book 2, Chapters 19 to 21

Issue 10 – Book 2, Chapters 22 to 24

Issue 11 – Book 3, Chapters 1 to 3

Issue 12 – Book 3, Chapters 4 to 7

Issue 13 – Book 3, Chapters 8 to 9

Issue 14 – Book 3, Chapters 10 to 12

Issue 15 – Book 3, Chapters 13 to 15

 

Source - http://dickens.stanford.edu/dickens/archive/tale/two_cities.html

 

I'm not sure how long each 'Issue' is.  I don't like the idea of reading this over 15 months!  :lol:

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I don't like the idea of reading this over 15 months!  :lol:

 

I don't blame you! AToTC is by far one of his shorter novels. I think 4–5 weeks would be plenty of time. I checked my Kindle edition and the first 'book' is quite short, the second book is the longest and the third is somewhere in between. So the second book, and perhaps the third, could be split into two weeks each.

 

I won't be participating so have no right to an opinion, really. Just thought I'd try to help. :)

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Thanks, Kylie - that's very useful.

 

And I'm glad you're joining us, Woolf Woolf and Timstar.

 

I have the Vintage version (although I'm going to read it on Kindle!).  It's 404 pages long, so we could try for five weekly instalments of 80 pages?  We can always review if that's too much.  Obviously that's just my suggestion - I'm very open to alternatives.  :)

 

My suggested breakdown would work like this:

 

Vintage edition - ISBN 9780099511854

 

Week 1

Issue 1 – Book 1, Chapters 1 to 4 (p 27)

Issue 2 – Book 1, Chapters 5 to 6 (p 51)

Issue 3 – Book 2, Chapters 1 to 3 (p 80) – total 80 pages

 

Week 2

Issue 4 – Book 2, Chapters 4 to 6 (p 107)

Issue 5 – Book 2, Chapters 7 to 9 (p 135)

Issue 6 – Book 2, Chapters 10 to 13 (p 161) – total 81 pages

 

Week 3

Issue 7 – Book 2, Chapters 14 to 15 (p 184)

Issue 8 – Book 2, Chapters 16 to 18 (p 209)              

Issue 9 – Book 2, Chapters 19 to 21 (p 233) – total 72 pages

 

Week 4

Issue 10 – Book 2, Chapters 22 to 24 (p 260)

Issue 11 – Book 3, Chapters 1 to 3 (p 286)

Issue 12 – Book 3, Chapters 4 to 7 (p 313) – total 80 pages

 

Week 5

Issue 13 – Book 3, Chapters 8 to 9 (p 341)

Issue 14 – Book 3, Chapters 10 to 12 (p 371)

Issue 15 – Book 3, Chapters 13 to 15 (p 404) – total 91 pages

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Sounds good to me too!  I wanted to try and match the end chapters of whatever we read with the original instalments, as they're written with cliffhangers or open endings so as to make you want to buy and read the next one, so as long as we match with that, I'm happy. :D

 

When would you all be happy to start … I was thinking of starting at the end of next week, so we could say have read the first week by the end of Sunday 25th October?  Gives me plenty of time to get a copy of the book and finish up some other books I wanted to read first, and still have time to read the first chapters.

 

If you haven't taken part in a group read before, what we do is all read the chapters together, and then after the end date for that instalment, we then discuss the chapters we've read.  We tend to discuss the plot and characters openly, which is why we wait until the end date before posting anything about what we're reading in that week … hope that makes sense!

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I want to read this book since years ago so maybe I could join you for the reading.

 

When you will start reading? On Monday, 19? And comment the first 80 pages? Sorry for asking but it's the first time that I want to join to a reading club.

 

I have a Kindle but I don't know if I can read in it because of the chapters, most of online copies that I have doesn't have the chapters.

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Yup, we'd start the first section on 18th and then start the discussion on 25th, on which day we'd then start the next section, and so on...

 

My Kindle shows the chapter divisions so hopefully yours will. I'm not sure how we/you would work out when you need to stop if not. 

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On 27/01/2020 at 2:53 PM, itsmeagain said:

It's his worst novel by some distance as it happens.

 

Am soon to start this for a book group read.  I'm a Dickens fan, but have never read this. My most recent was The Old Curiosity Shop, and have to say that that's been the weakest I've read so far (mainly the thread that follows Little Nell, the rest was very enjoyable).  Will be interesting how this pans out now!

Edited by willoyd
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