I’m very excited to be taking part in a venture initiated by the Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester and Dickens’ Journals Online which starts at the end of this month. To celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, a group of readers will be enjoying A Tale of Two Cities in weekly instalments, the way it was originally published in the journal All The Year Round. As we read we will be blogging about the experience at http://dickensataleoftwocities.wordpress.com/.
If you are intrigued and fancy joining in, the first read begins on 30 April exactly as it did when the first instalment of A Tale of Two Cities appeared on 30 April 1859. To request an invitation, visit http://dickensataleoftwocities.wordpress.com/about/ for details.
I loved reading Oliver Twist and David Copperfield recently and have a great affection for Great Expectations which we studied at school for both O level and A level (strangely but conveniently – perhaps the examiners ran out of inspiration that year), but A Tale of Two Cities is one of a number of Dickens’ books that I have never got around to reading and it will be fascinating to experience it in its original format. I should really confess as well that I tried to read The Pickwick Papers but failed… I love Dickens’ humour as light relief in his serious works but the full-on comedy just didn’t work for me. Sorry, Chaz!
Lou Treleaven 