Re: reading TALE OF TWO CITIES

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Mon, 1 Sep 1997 15:32:31 -0100

My Dear Jimmy,

  You ask a lot of an author, forsooth!  You ask me to tell you why you
should read my book, "A Tale of Two Cities."  Would I have written it, my
dear Jimmy, and published it, if I didn't think it worth reading?  I like to
think my books their own recommendation!
  However, I believe I understand your feelings.  In my day, almost everyone
who could read read books all the time.  Today there are other distractions.
Would I be wrong in feeling that, by and large, you are more interested in
those other distractions, and want an especial recommendation, if you are to
read a book?  The Inimitable will do his best to supply it.
  "A Tale of Two Cities" is a tale of people caught up in a revolution, a
tale of injustice, cruelty, madness, heroism, self-sacrifice and
self-discovery.  It is a tale of how political upheaval can overwhelm
ordinary human decencies, and how these have to be preserved by the best and
the most determined.  I like to think, too, that you might enjoy the way I
depict London and Paris late in the eighteenth century, an exercise in
imagination for me too, don't forget, since I was writing seventy years
after the events I described.
  Do read my book, Jimmy, and do enjoy it.


Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Dear Mr. Dickens
>
>       My name is Jimmy, I have some friend and they all readed your book "A Tale
of Two Cities"
>All my friend a work recommend that I should read the book.  I haven't
readed it yet, but I
>wanted to know what is the story about before I go spent my money on
something I don't like.
>
>Thank you,
>Jimmy
>
>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author