A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The opening and closing lines are immortal classics, and the book does has some great characters and set pieces. But it’s my least favorite Dickens, showing off his biggest flaws, especially overwrought language, rank sentimentality and coincidence so arbitrary as to be lazy. Plus, his characterization of the French Revolution is distinctly unhelpful. Indeed, it shows that this champion of the downtrodden was still absolutely terrified of poor people.