bookshelves of doom

Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices, #1 -- Cassandra Clare

England, 1878. Although she's surprised when her brother isn't on hand to meet her ship when it docks in Southampton, Tessa Gray reads his note of explanation and introduction to the "Dark Ladies", as he calls them, pushes her suspicion aside, and gets into their carriage.

Six weeks later, she's still a prisoner in the Dark Ladies' house, forced to endure daily training sessions in shapeshifting -- a talent she'd never known she possessed using magic she'd never known existed -- in the hopes of saving her captive brother's life.

Luckily for her, a chance rescue occurs when two exceedingly handsome young Shadowhunters attack the household, looking for information about the recent murder of a young girl. But despite a thorough search, her brother is nowhere to be found...

Such is Tessa's introduction to the world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders, the Institute and the Pandemonium Club, vampires and automatons, warlocks and magic. A world that she has unknowingly belonged to since birth. The Shadowhunters take her in, but if she's ever going to find her brother, she's going to have to use her newfound talent...

Okay, so once Tessa had her first scene with Will Herondale, I admit it: I rolled my eyes a bit. Because, despite the difference in apparence -- his hair is inky black, while Jace was a blond -- there was a pretty obvious parallel between Tessa and Will's interactions and Clary and Jace's*. In short, Will's all reckless and daring and has issues with authority as well as some MAJOR ISSUES with LIFE IN GENERAL for as-yet unknown reasons, but he and Tessa also share an immediate lurrrve that he won't admit.

But despite the fact that I'm far past ODing on the Way Tortured Male LeadWho Knows In His Heart of Hearts That He Is Unworthy/Dangerous/Toolish archetype... I got won over. And, I'm really embarrassed to say, I got won over because Will identifies with ANOTHER Male Lead WKIHHoHTHIU/D/T: A Tale of Two Cities' Sydney Carton.

From Clockwork Angel:

"Sydney Carton?" But you said you hated A Tale of Two Cities!"

"I don't really." Will seemed unabashed by his lie.

"And Sydney Carton was a dissipated alcoholic."

"Exactly. There was a man who was worthless, and knew he was worthless, and yet however far down he tried to sink his soul, there was always some part of him capable of great action." Will lowered his voice. "What is it he says to Lucie Manette? That though he is weak, he can still burn?"

Tessa, who had read A Tale of Two Cities more times that she could count, whispered, "'And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, head of ashes that I am, into fire.'" She hesitated. "But that was because he loved her."

"Yes," said Will. "He loved her enough to know she was better off without him." His hands were still on hers, the heat of them burning through her gloves.

So, yes. I was won over. And once I got over myself, I enjoyed the entire thing wholeheartedly, and I'm totally looking forward to the next one.

Also, MAGNUS BANE! ♥ ♥ ♥

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*Not to mention the similar breakdowns of the other characters.

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Previously:

1. City of Bones
2. City of Ashes
3. City of Glass

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Book source: Library copy.

Sydney Carton and the Slingshot of Doom.

I kid you not.

I give you:  A Tale of Two Cities FAN FICTION!!!

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 13-15

Chapter Thirteen:  Fifty-Two
In which Darnay and Carton meet for the last time.

• While I've never particularly taken to Charles Darnay, the passage about him coming to terms with his situation and his impending death really got me:

Before long, the consideration that there was no disgrace in the fate he must meet, and that numbers went the same road wrongfully, and trod it firmly every day, sprang up to stimulate him.  Next the dear ones, depended on his quiet fortitude.  So, by degrees he calmed into the better state, when he could raise his thoughts much higher, and draw comfort down.

The bit about 'quiet fortitude' reminded me of the end of Angels with Dirty Faces, except, of course, reversed.  (Because Jimmy Cagney went to his execution screaming so that he wouldn't be a hero to the kids.  What?  You haven't seen it?  REALLY?)

• And I do appreciate that it isn't just Lucie that everyone wants to protect, but also (and maybe even more so) Doctor Manette.
• "He never thought of Carton.  His mind was so full of the others, that he never once thought of him."  Oh, man.  He's going to feel like a jerk.  Wow.
• Carton is there.
• And he is switching clothes with Darnay. 
• Darnay is understandably shocked and confused.  "The prisoner was like a young child in his hands."
• Sniffle.  The note that Carton dictates to Darnay.  Oh, waaaaaaaaaaaaaah.  Why did I want to read this book????
• Wow.  And Carton just totally drugged Darnay.  He was right, though, he wouldn't have been able to make this work otherwise because Darnay would have argued.
• Barsad has a couple of jailers carry Darnay (dressed as Carton) out, and Carton is now in Darnay's cell, alone.  Sniffle.
• Carton does love the weak and pitiable ladies.
• Okay, I'm full-on sobbing now:

As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment.  he pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips.

"Are you dying for him?" she whispered.

"And his wife and child.  Hush!  Yes."

"O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?"

"Hush!  Yes, my poor sister; to the last."

• And Mr. Jarvis Lorry, Lucie, little Lucie and Darnay are on their way out of France.  (What happened to Cruncher and Miss Pross?)

Chapter Fourteen:  The Knitting Done
In which we enjoy The Showdown to End All Showdowns.

• And now Madame Defarge has revealed that she wants Lucie and little Lucie to be executed.
• Jacques Three continues to be yicky:

"She has a fine head for it," croaked Jacques Three.  "I have seen blue eyes and golden hair there, and they looked charming when Samson held them up."  Ogre that he was, he spoke like an epicure.

• I do think that Madame Defarge's affection for her husband is affecting her actions -- if she suspected anyone else of thinking about warning Lucie & Co., she'd want them executed as well...
• And the wood-sawyer is ready to testify against Lucie...
• The Vengeance is like a cross between Gollum and a harpy.
• Whoa.  Madame Defarge just handed her knitting off to The Vengeance.  That, combined with the chapter title... is something going to happen to Madame Defarge???
• Oh, here are Miss Pross and Jerry.  Oh my good god, is there about to be a Pross/Defarge/Cruncher showdown???
• Ha ha ha:

"First," said Mr. Cruncher, who was all in a tremble, and who spoke with an ashy and solemn visage, "them poor things well out o' this, never no more will I do it, never no more!"

"I am quite sure, Mr. Cruncher," returned Miss Pross, 'that you never will do it again, whatever it is, and I beg you not to think it necessary to mention more particularly what it is."

Oh, I love them both.

• Oh.  Not Jerry's gone out to tell the coach to meet Miss Pross at the cathedral instead... leaving Miss Pross ALL ALONE.
• AND NOW MADAME DEFARGE IS THERE!!!
• "Each spoke in her own language; neither understood the other's words; both were very watchful, and intent to deduce from look and manner, what the unintelligible words meant."
• "I little thought," said Miss Pross, "that I should ever want to understand your nonsensical language; but I would give all I have, except the clothes I wear, to know whether you suspect the truth, or any part of it."  I love that she's so practical that she makes the "except the clothes I wear" exception.  Hee.
• NO WAY!!!!  Go, Miss Pross.  That was an excellent showdown, but ultimately, a very quick end for a character as formidable as Madame Defarge.
• Oh.  And Miss Pross has lost her hearing forever.

Chapter Fifteen:  The Footsteps Die Out for Ever
In which I took no notes because I was too busy sobbing.

• Sydney Carton's last thoughts:

"I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.

"I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.

"I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.

"I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place-- then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement --and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

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Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4
Book the Third, Chapters 5-8
Book the Third, Chapters 9-12

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Other reader/bloggers:

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Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 9-12

Chapter Nine:  The Game Made
In which Mr. Lorry sees Sydney's good side, Sydney goes for a midnight ramble and Darnay's second trial begins.

• Ha ha ha.  I forgot that Jerry's grave-robbing might disturb my darling Mr. Lorry:

...Mr. Lorry looked at Jerry in considerable doubt and mistrust.  That honest tradesman's manner of receiving the look, did not inspire confidence; he changed the leg on which he rested, as often as if he had fifty of those limbs, and were trying them all; he examined his finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention; and whenever Mr. Lorry's eye caught his, he was taken with that peculiar kind of short cough requiring the hollow of his hand before it, which is seldom, if ever, known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect openness of character.

I'm glad to know that pretending to inspect one's fingernails goes back so far.  I find that hilarious for some reason.

• So Sydney has fixed it so he can get access (through Barsad/Solomon/spy-face) to Darnay IF this new trial goes badly.  I'm starting to think that Mr. Charles Dickens and I will NOT be friends by the end of this book.
• And he's totally making Sydney more and more likable.  Grrr.  This almost choked me up:

"You are a good man and a true friend," said Carton, in an altered voice.  "Forgive me if I notice that you are affected.  I could not see my father weep, and sit by, careless.  And I could not respect your sorrow more, if you were my father.  You are free from that misfortune, however."

Though he said the last words, with a slip into his usual manner, there was a true feeling and respect both in his tone and in his touch, that Mr. Lorry, who had never seen the better side of him, was wholly unprepared for.

• Oh, wow.  I hadn't even thought of the suicide-before-execution option.
• Okay, I know I need to Let This Go, but what is it about Miss Manette that inspires these men????  Sydney just let out a "long, grieving sound, like a sigh--almost like a sob".
• Jebus.  I can't take this.  I AM getting choked up.  Dickens, you jerk:

It was not a reckless manner, the manner in which he said these words aloud under the fast-sailing clouds, nor was it more expressive of negligence than defiance.  It was the settled manner of a tired man, who had wandered and struggled and got lost, but who at length struck into his road and saw its end.

• And now, the trial.  The Defarges were two of the people who denounced Darnay... and DOCTOR MANETTE was the third!!  How could that be -- even he himself doesn't know!!  Somehow I think it has something to do with whatever Defarge was looking for a the Bastille...
• "I defy that bell!"  Ha ha.  Thank goodness for The Vengeance.  She bumped me right out of my Sydney-Carton-induced funk.
• Jacques Three is a very unattractive character.
• And Defarge DID find a paper in the cell.  But we will only find out what it says in the next chapter.  (If this had been the end of an installment in the original, I would have wanted to strangle the author.)

Chapter Ten:  The Substance of the Shadow
In which we finally find out why Doctor Manette was imprisoned.

• And, of course, the verdict is death.  (Because Charles (who was two at the time) must CLEARLY pay for the sins of his father and uncle.)
• PS.  No, I'm not going to tell you why he was imprisoned.  What do you think this is, Cliff's Notes?  Sheesh.  Read it yourself.

Chapter Eleven:  Dusk
In which Lucie faints like a champ.

• Gosh.  Lucie hasn't even swooned yet.  She is being Strong for her Man.
• Doctor Manette tries to kneel and ask forgiveness, but Darnay won't hear of it:

"No, no!  What have you done, what have you done, that you should kneel to us!  We know now, what a struggle you made of old.  We know now, what you underwent when you suspected my descent, and when you knew it.  We know now, the natural antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake.  We thank you with all out hearts, and all out love and duty!  Heaven be with you!"

• The second Darnay leaves the room, of course, Lucie faints all over the place.
• And then Sydney swoops in and picks her up.  (He's very proud of her.  Blecch.)
• And, LOOK!  Lucie Junior speaks!:

"Oh, Carton, Carton, dear Carton!" cried little Lucie, springing up and throwing her arms passionately round him, in a burst of grief.  "Now that you have come, I think you will do something to help mamma, something to save papa!  O, look at her, dear Carton!  Can you, of all the people who love her, bear to see her so?"

Straight out of Days.  I swear.

• Doctor Manette is going to try and get the conviction overturned, but Mr. Lorry and Sydney know that it's a lost cause.  I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING, SYDNEY!  DON'T DO IT!!

Chapter Twelve:  Darkness
In which we learn that Madame Defarge is in this for more than her ideals.

• Sydney very deliberately goes to the wine shop, because "it is best that these people should know there is such a man as I here".  Sob.
• Madame Defarge notes the uncanny resemblance immediately.
• Nice:

"It is true what madame says," observed Jacques Three.  "Why stop?  There is great force in that.  Why stop?"

"Well, well," reasoned Defarge, "but one must stop somewhere.  After all, the question is still where?"

"At extermination," said madame.

• Wait.  So Madame Defarge is literallythe sister of the woman destroyed by the Evremonde brothers?  Not just metaphorically?  So this is personal revenge?  Huh.  I did NOT see that coming.  "Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don't tell me."  That is a FANTASTIC line.
• Awww, no!  Doctor Manette is looking for his shoemaker's bench again.  My heart just broke a little.
• Carton just gave his identity papers to Mr. Lorry.  And then made Mr. Lorry swear to follow his instructions -- to secretly get everything and everyone ready to leave Paris, to "wait for nothing but to have my [Carton's] place occupied, and then for England!"  Sob.  Sob sob sob sob sob.
• This book doesn't, like, secretly have a happy ending, does it?  Because I'd be okay with that.

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Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4
Book the Third, Chapters 5-8

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Other reader/bloggers:

TadMack @ Finding Wonderland

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Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 5-8

Chapter Five:  The Wood-Sawyer
In which Lucie manages to keep herself very busy AND YET, stand around a whole lot.

• "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death;--the last, much the easier to bestow, O Guillotine!"
• Ah, good.  Lucie is keeping herself busy and useful, by arranging the household and tutoring little Lucie.  She's also set aside Darnay's chair and books -- does that mean his stuff from England?  Did they show up with LUGGAGE?  How on earth did she go about making travel arrangements?  I am envious of her skillz.
• So is the wood-sawyer the same mender of roads?  And if he knows that Lucie is there to "visit" her husband in prison, is that going to cause trouble?  Apparently not.
• I haven't mentioned it for quite a while (as I've been so caught up in the story), but all along, Dickens' description has continued to provide & create such fantastic, clear images for me.  He really is great for that.  I can see everything.
• I suspect that the Carmagnole scene has been dissected in many a high school English class. 
• Madame Defarge appears right after Lucie blows a kiss to the prison window -- UH OH.
• And who could that be with Mr. Lorry?  Could it possibly be Sydney Carton??  He saved Darney at his first trial, after all.  If he saved him again, it would all be so attractively symmetrical.

Chapter Six:  Triumph
In which Darnay's trial goes very well.

• "And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them."  Isn't there some other quote along those lines, that under the right circumstances, any person is capable of any thing?  Or did I just make that up?
• Wow.  Fifteen people condemned to death in an hour and a half.  And yet, note how Dickens is totally spinning this out -- he's all about the nail-biters.  I want to shake him and yell, "YES, THE HATS OF THE JUDGES, JURY AND AUDIENCE ARE EXTREMELY INTERESTING, BUT WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN??  YES, IT'S TRUE THAT I DON'T PARTICULARLY CARE ABOUT DARNAY AND LUCIE BUT I NEED TO KNOW ANYWAY!!"
• "So capriciously were the people moved, that tears immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before, as if with impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him."  There's something so surreal about this whole scene -- totally weird, but I keep thinking of Running Man.  (I think it must be the audience -- that for the people who aren't connected to the cases, it IS a form of entertainment.  (Well, and it's entertainment for us, too...)  Isn't there a scene in Oliver Twist where all of the rich people go to a hanging with picnic lunches?  Like that.)
• Hey, wow.  Gabelle is still alive!  And a free man, apparently.  And Darnay's first witness.  Then come Doctor Manette and Mr. Lorry, and Darnay is declared a free man.  Did that seem waaay too easy to you?  Yeah, me, too.
• "Then, began one of those extraordinary scenes with which the populace sometimes gratified their fickleness, or their better impulses towards generosity and mercy, or which they regarded as some set-off against their swollen account of cruel rage."  Huh.  Well, fickleness goes both ways, and we have almost a hundred pages left...  But, at the moment, the People Love Darnay and carry him home on a big chair that they happen to have handy.
• Aaaand Lucie faints.  From happiness.  Or something.  Shocker.
• Aaaand there's the Carmagnole again.

Chapter Seven:  A Knock at the Door
In which I TOLD YOU SO!!

• Erm.  Shouldn't they be looking into GETTING OUT OF DODGE?
• I'm so glad that Doctor Manette "showed a compassionate superiority to this woman's weakness".  Awesome.
• Ah, Jerry.  Still around.  And now pretty much always at the Darnay/Manette household.  I wonder how he and Miss Pross get along.  I can't imagine that she'd take much guff from him.  What was the point of telling us about his grave-robber-y habits?  Is that ever going to tie in, or was it just, you know, local color?  Seems like he'd be able to make a killing (har har) in France, what with the bazillions of bodies just lying around (har har again).
• Miss Pross thinks of the entire French language as "nonsense".  I love her.
• No wonder I love her.  She asks all of the questions I want the answers to -- the foremost among them being, of course, why haven't they left yet?  Answer:  Too Dangerous for Charles.
• Man, even Doctor Manette is getting annoyed with Lucie.  (The elder.  The kid-version seems to be one of those soap-opera kids -- stick 'em in a corner or up in the attic until there's a family gathering in need of a Touching Moment or their presence is somehow necessary to further the plot.)
• I KNEW IT.  They've re-arrested Darnay.  Why?  WHO KNOWS?
• Ooooh.  The Defarges have denounced Darnay.  As has one other.  BUT WHO???

Chapter Eight:  A Hand at Cards
In which also sorts of awesomeness happens.

• "Happily unconscious of the new calamity at home..." Dickens-speak for 'meanwhile...'!  I like his version better.
• SHUT UP!!  Miss Pross' BROTHER?!  Is in FRANCE!?
• AND HE'S ALSO BARSAD?!!! 
• AH HAH!!  Sydney Carton IS in France!  And he's much more likable than he's ever been.
• Oh, son of a... I know where this is going.  AND I DON'T LIKE IT.
• Barsad/Solomon was also the spy in the wine-shop.  Ha ha ha.
• Ask and ye shall receive:  Jerry's grave-robbing ways have become a plot point.  Ha ha.  Oh, I love you, Charles Dickens.
• The Plan Has Not Been Revealed.  I suspect that the writers of Days of our Lives must totally love Dickens.

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Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24
Book the Third, Chapters 1-4

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Other reader/bloggers:

Tadmack @ Finding Wonderland

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapters 1-4

Chapter One:  In Secret
In which Darnay arrives in Paris and the inevitable happens.

• Oh, this is going nowhere good:

Every town-gate and village taxing-house had its band of citizen patriots, with their national muskets in a most explosive state of readiness, who stopped all comers and goers, cross-questioned them, inspected their papers, looked for their names in lists of their own, turned them back, or sent them on, or stopped them and laid them in hold, as their capricious judgment or fancy deemed best for the dawning Republic One and indivisible, of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.

• And Darnay has finally realized that it is going nowhere good:

The universal watchfulness so encompassed him, that if he had been taken in a net, or were being forwarded to his destination in a cage, he would not have felt his freedom more completely gone.

• "And he was, therefore, as little surprised as a man could be, to find himself awakened at the small inn to which he had been remitted until morning, in the middle of the night."  The red-caps were startlingly similar in attitude to the Marquis all those chapters back, and a few paragraphs down, it would be easy enough to substitute 'escorted' with 'prisoner'.  The people are still desperately poor, with the escorts twisting "straw round their bare legs, and thatched their ragged shoulders to keep the wet off".
• Still, after all this, Charles Darnay expects the people in charge at the Abbaye to be reasonable.
• Then, in Beauvais:

"Everybody says it [the decree] is but one of several, and that there will be others--if there are not already--banishing all emigrants, and condemning all to death who return.  That is what he meant when he said your life was not your own."

"But there are no such decrees yet?"

"What do I know!" said the postmaster, shrugging his shoulders; "there may be, or there will be.  It is all the same.  What would you have?"

• So it came as no surprise (to me, anyway) when Darnay arrived at the Paris gates and is taken prisoner.  Defarge is there when it happens, and to be honest, I felt worse for him than for Darnay.  Maybe because I've always been more invested in him than in Darnay, and also maybe because he's clearly had reservations about the black-and-whiteness of it all.
• I felt like Dickens was speaking directly to me here, defending Darnay:

That he had fallen among far greater dangers than those which had developed themselves when he left England, he of course knew now.  That perils had thickened about him fast, and might thicken faster and faster yet, he of course knew now.  He could not but admit to himself that he might not have made this journey, if he could have foreseen the events of a few days.  And yet his misgivings were not so dark as, imagined by the light of this later time, they would appear.  Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope.  The horrible massacre, days and nights long, which, within a few rounds of the clock, was to set a great mark of blood upon the blessed garnering time of harvest, was as far out of his knowledge as if it had been a hundred thousand years away.  The "sharp female newly-born, and called La Guillotine," was hardly known to him, or to the generality of people, by name.  The frightful deeds that were to be soon done, were probably unimagined at that time in the brains of the doers.  How could they have a place in the shadowy conceptions of a gentle mind?

And now I feel all guilty for being so hard on him.

• What does "In Secret" mean?  That they will not tell anyone that Darnay has been imprisoned?
• I liked this:

So strangely clouded were these refinements by the prison manners and gloom, so spectral did they become in the inappropriate squalor and misery through which they were seen, that Charles Darnay seemed to stand in company of the dead.  Ghosts all!  The ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride, the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of wit, the ghost of youth, the ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were changed by the death they had died in coming there.

• Uh oh.  Darnay has been in prison for point-five seconds and he's already starting to go bananas.

Chapter Two:  The Grindstone
In which it occurred to me that Dickens could have easily written vampire novels.

• I was becoming concerned that Dickens would drop the humor altogether in this third book -- but the comparison of London Tellson's to Paris Tellson's reassured me.  I loved that they "whitewashed the Cupid, but he was still to be seen on the ceiling, in the coolest linen, aiming (as he very often does) at money from morning to night".
• WAIT.  WHAT???  Now Lucie and Doctor Manette are in Paris??
• Ah, and of course Doctor Manette's history would be helpful, what with the Bastille imprisonment and all.
• "I will be submissive to you."  Because Lucie has ever been anything but?
• Wow.  The grindstone scene is seriously scary.
• And now Doctor Manette is asking for help from the grindstone people, and they sound eager to give it.
• THEY BROUGHT THE KID TO PARIS, TOO???  Wouldn't it have, I don't know, made more sense to leave her home with Miss Pross or something?
• Morning has come, with no sign of Doctor Manette.

Chapter Three:  The Shadow
In which Madame Defarge is SCARY SCARY SCARY SCARY SCARY.

• Hmmm.  Defarge is acting weird and now that he, Madame Defarge (who is knitting, which is ominous) and The Vengeance are going to see Lucie with Mr. Lorry... I'm getting concerned.  As Lucie is married to Darnay, won't she suddenly be seen as an Enemy, too?  At least Jerry is there.
• GAH.:

It was a passionate, loving, thankful, womanly action, but the hand made no response--dropped cold and heavy, and took to its knitting again.

There was something in its touch that gave Lucie a check.  She stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom, and with her hands yet at her neck, looked terrified at Madame Defarge.  Madame Defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold, impassive stare. 

• Oh, man.  And it looks like Lucie, Jr. is the one who is the most danger.  WHY DID THEY BRING HER?
• This is ridiculous, but:  You know Celia's buddy on Weeds?  (I think her name is Pam...)  That's who I keep picturing as The Vengeance.  I don't know why.

Chapter Four:  Calm in Storm
In which over a year passes, and Darnay remains in prison.

• Phew.  Eleven hundred killed in four days.
• "For the first time the Doctor felt, now, that his suffering was strength and power." 
• I've been trying to figure out why it is that Darnay and Lucie continue to leave me cold, while I have strong feelings about pretty much every other character in the book.  I think it's because they don't seem at all like actual people, but instead, symbols.  Or something. 
• PS.  WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GABELLE?

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Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20
Book the Second, Chapters 21-24

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Other reader/bloggers:

TadMack @ Finding Wonderland

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Big Read III: A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens Book the Second: The Golden Thread, Chapters 21-24

Chapter Twenty-One:  Echoing Footsteps
In which six years pass and the people storm the crap out of the Bastille.

• Lucie and the echoes:

At first, there were times, though she was a perfectly happy young wife, when her work would slowly fall from her hands, and her eyes would be dimmed.  For, there was something coming in the echoes, something light, afar off, and scarcely audible yet, that stirred her heart too much.  Fluttering hopes and doubts--hopes, of a love as yet unknown to her; doubts, of her remaining upon earth, to enjoy that new delight--divided her breast.  Among the echoes then, there would arise the sound of footsteps at her own early grave; and thoughts of the husband who would be left so desolate, and who would mourn for her so much, swelled to her eyes, and broke like waves.

*Whispering*: Is this about pregnancy and childbirth?  I'm feeling really dumb right now.  Okaythanksbye.

• Oh, hey -- I was right.  Because now there's a mini-Lucie.
• Another child, this time a boy.  He dies.  His death-bed utterance ("Dear papa and mamma, I am very sorry to leave you both, and to leave my pretty sister; but I am called, and I must go!") made me feel that I must be a heartless hag, because it made me throw up a little in my mouth.
• Sydney Carton still visits occasionally, and seems to have mellowed, at least outwardly.  Lucie Jr. adores him.  (As did the apparently unnamed little boy, who also said on his deathbed, "Poor Carton!  Kiss him for me!")
• Mr. Stryver continues to be horrible.  He is now married, with three stepsons, and, "exuding patronage of the most offensive quality from every pore", offered them up as pupils to Darnay.  And he tells everyone who will listen that Lucie tried to "catch" him.  YUCK!!
• And so now, Lucie Jr. is six years old and it is July 1789.  (Dickens spelled it out, of course.)
• Mr. Lorry continues to be my favorite: 

"I know that, to be sure," assented Mr. Lorry, trying to persuade himself that his sweet temper was soured, and that he grumbled, "but I am determined to be peevish after my long day's botheration."

• Switch to Saint Antoine, and I found myself completely riveted (I actually didn't take any notes from here on in, so I apologize for the rest of my write-up being sketchy.):

Who gave them out, whence they last came, where they began, through what agency they crookedly quivered and jerked, scores at a time, over the heads of the crowd, like a kind of lightning, no eye in the throng could have told; but, muskets were being distributed--so were cartridges, powder and ball, bars of iron and wood, knives, axes, pikes, every weapon that distracted ingenuity could discover or devise.  People who could lay hold of nothing else, set themselves with bleeding hands to force stones and bricks out of their places in walls.  Every pulse and heart in Saint Antoine was on high-fever strain and at high fever heat.  Every living creature there held life as of no account, and was demented with a passionate readiness to sacrifice it.

PHEW.  At the wine-shop, Defarge is giving out weapons and orders, and Madame Defarge has put down her knitting:

Madame's resolute right hand was occupied with an axe, in place of the usual soft implements, and in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel knife.

This whole section, the storming of the Bastille, kept me completely entranced (even though we had company over (Jane calls him 'The Loud Man' -- yes, our dog talks)) not just because of the action, but also because of the rhythm.  I felt like my pulse changed pace, even.  Basically, it was awesome.  This morning:

Me:  So they stormed the hell out of the Bastille last night.
Josh:  Uh huh.
Me:  And THEN, they caught the governor of the Bastille and Madame Defarge put her foot on his neck and CHOPPED OFF HIS HEAD.  And she DIDN'T EVEN USE HER AXE.  She, like, SAWED HIS HEAD OFF WITH HER KNIFE.  Is it wrong that I think she's kind of awesome?
Josh:  (looking as nervous as he can without his morning coffee)  Jesus.

• So what were they looking for in Doctor Manette's cell, anyway?

Chapter Twenty-Two:  The Sea Still Rises
In which this says it all:  "The men were terrible, in the bloody-minded anger with which they looked from windows, caught up what arms they had, and came pouring down into the streets; but, the women were a sight to chill the boldest."

• Yep.  It's all about the ladies:

Instantly Madame Defarge's knife was in her girdle; the drum was beating in the streets, as if it and a drummer had flown together by magic; and The Vengeance, uttering terrific shrieks, and flinging her arms about her head like all the forty Furies at once, was tearing from house to house, rousing the women.

What would Miss Manette have been like if she hadn't been brought up in England?  And Miss Pross?

• Yow.  Foulon's death was especially brutal.  AND LONG.
• I love that Saint Antoine is anthropomorphized -- that rather than saying that the people of Saint Antoine blah blah blah, he says:

Nor was this the end of the day's bad work, for Saint Antoine so shouted and danced his angry blood up, that it boiled again, on hearing when the day closed in that the son-in-law of the despatched, another of the people's enemies and insulters, was coming into Paris under a guard five hundred strong, in cavalry alone.  Saint Antoine wrote his crimes on flaring sheets of paper, seized him--would have torn him out of the breast of an army to bear Foulon company--set his head and heart on pikes, and carried the three spoils of the day, in Wolf-procession through the streets.

Chapter Twenty-Three:  Fire Rises
In which the dead Marquis' chateau (which I assume technically belongs to Mr. Darnay now, yes?) is torched.

• Unrest in the ranks:

The prison on the crag was not so dominant as of yore; there were soldiers to guard it, but not many; there were officers to guard the soldiers, but not one of them knew what his men would do--beyond this: that it would probably not be what he was ordered.

• This was good:

The tocsin rang impatiently, but other help (if there were any) there was none.  The mender of roads, and two hundred and fifty particular friends, stood with folded arms at the fountain, looking a the pillar of fire in the sky.  "It must be forty feet high," said they, grimly; and never moved.

• I did feel bad for Monsieur Gabelle hiding up on his roof -- I like him, maybe because of this:

The result of that conference was, that Gabelle again withdrew himself to his housetop behind his stack of chimneys; this time resolved, if his door were broken in (he was a small Southern man of retaliative temperament), to pitch himself head foremost over the parapet, and crush a man or two below.

Why would something like that make me like someone?  I'm a horrible person. 

Chapter Twenty-Four:  Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
In which Mr. Stryver is a complete jerk (shocking!) and Mr. Darnay receives a letter.

• So now Darnay is off to France to save Gabelle.  Yeah, that France.  The country where he's a dead man.  (Which, yeah, might be something that he's not fully aware of, but whatever.)  WITHOUT TELLING HIS WIFE, DAUGHTER AND/OR FATHER-IN-LAW.  Because, you know, he wants to "spare the pain of separation".  Well, how much more painful will it be for them if you get killed over there?  Huh?  Huh?  Jerk.  I told Josh that if he ever did something like that, I'd stomp right over to France and strangle him myself.  ARRRRRRRG!!!

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Previously:

The Reading Schedule
Book the First, Chapters 1-3
Book the First, Chapters 4-6
Book the Second, Chapters 1-5
Book the Second, Chapters 6-9
Book the Second, Chapters 10-12
Book the Second, Chapters 13-16
Book the Second, Chapters 17-20

_____________________________________________

Other reader/bloggers:

TadMack @ Finding Wonderland
Heidi @ Adventures in Multiplicity

_____________________________________________

Free copies of A Tale of Two Cities are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox.