Re: Question for Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Thu, 31 Jul 1997 12:04:20 -0100 

>To: MaxineR@AOL.COM
>From: cdickens@rmplc.co.uk (Charles Dickens)
>Subject: Re: Question for Charles Dickens
>
My dear Miss Ryba,

  Thank you for your message.  In 1775 France was on the threshold of its
Revolution.  England was to experience no such revolution on its own soil,
but that year its colonial subjects in America began their struggle against
arbitrary and unrepresentative government, which became the American
Revolution, and led to the loss of those colonies.  There was discontent at
home, too, at change in people's lives brought about by the introduction of
machinery to industry, and at the powerlessness of people most affected by
such change.  Yet both in England and France, the governing classes remained
easy in their minds, and content that no action was called for to secure
their tranquillity.  I wished my readers to understand that the Woodman,
Fate, and the Farmer, Death, had not exempted England from their hewing and
hauling, the more so because by 1859, when I wrote "A Tale of Two Cities,"
France had already experienced a second revolution, that of 1848, and the
protracted anguish of reform in Britain was far from complete (a second
reform bill was to be enacted in 1867), despite alarming agitation by Chartists.
  It is for you, my dear Miss Ryba, to say how this compares to the
situation in your country today, if indeed it does.  For me there is only
the hope that I have improved your understanding of England and France in
1775, and the years following.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________

>     For a homework assignment, I was asked to write an essay which
describes our present national era and condition, striking a parallel in
your descrption to the description you provide of England and France in
1775.  To do this essay I need to understand your description.  Which I
don't.  Could you please break down your description and help me understand
the national era of 1775?  I would thank you greatly.
     Hoping for a reply,
              Casey E. Ryba

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Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author