DDR: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Well...I'm going to read them again, but as I've previously read A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations...which are the 33rd and 34th Volumes of The Complete Dickens...that means that I actually only have Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood standing between me and my completing My Dickens Project. To be honest, I didn't think that I could do it. After buying them, those 36 Volumes just sat around collecting dust for years before I thought about having a go at the novels. Which then became a Let's Just Read Them All thing after a bit. And now...I'm less than three months away from jumping this big fuckin' shark. Gonna have me a party when I finish. A Delta 9 party! The inside of my head will look like this:

Reserve your Front Row seat now!

Day 1 (DDRD 2,077) July 9, 2023

 

Read to page 11. The Introduction (by one Sir John Shuckburgh) was almost completely without scorn (A rare thing in the Introductions) and was actually quite laudatory. The first 11 pages of the novel itself seemed very familiar to me, despite the fact that it's been at least a couple of decades since I last read it. Which bodes well, doesn't it?

Day 2 (DDRD 2,078) July 10, 2023

 

Read to page 50.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,079) July 11, 2023

 

Read to page 100.  Funny, as I was thinking I'd be hard pressed to do 30 today what with volunteering at the hospital, picking up my repaired computer, going to a meeting,  and watching two softball games (albeit simultaneously).

Day 4 (DDRD 2,080) July 12, 2023

 

Read to page 134. 

"He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart; so rendered and so free from any mercenary taint...." (109)

Y'know, for a "Classic," this is a pretty exciting read. Go, Charlie, go!

Case in Point: read some more. To page 161. And actually feel like reading more. And funny thing. Usually reading is compelling because of some plot element, because there's tension between what is happening to the characters and what you want to happen, your desire to see them delivered from or to their just due. But I already know the major, and most of the minor, plot points of A Tale of Two Cities. So that's not what driving me. It's just such good writing!

Point in this Case: Someone does something terrible on page 125. You know how long Dickens makes us wait for see justice done to the evildoer? 22 pages (it happens on page 147). In back-to-back chapters. That's FAN service! 

Day 5 (DDRD 2,081) July 13, 2023

 

Read to page 213. You know, I always thought of Madame Debate as a big, thick, middle-aged woman. But the book illustration of her

doesn't lean that way at all. In fact, she

looks kind of petite. And kind of hot, too. Well...Dickens did have an eye for the young girls, after all.

23 + 214 = 237 / 460 = 52% Hmpf. That was quick. And averaging 47.4 pages per day...without really trying. That's a good sign, ennit?

Day 6 (DDRD 2,082) July 14, 2023

 

Read to page 250. 261. 274.

Check this out:

“Really? Well; but don’t cry,” said the gentle Mr. Lorry.

“I am not crying,” said Miss Pross; “you are.”

So I guess Dickens invented that, too.

And of the arrogant Mr. Stryver, we're told

"Some of his King’s Bench familiars, who were occasionally parties to the full-bodied wine and the lie, excused him for the latter by saying that he had told it so often, that he believed it himself—which is surely such an incorrigible aggravation of an originally bad offence, as to justify any such offender’s being carried off to some suitably retired spot, and there hanged out of the way."

Which sounds (1) very familiar and (2) quite reasonable.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,083) July 15, 2023

 

Read to page 302.

Day 8 (DDRD 2,084) July 16, 2023

 

Read to page 350. So hey, only 87 pages to go. That's like 3 days. Maybe 2!

Meanwhile, here's a good word for you (from page 350):

tergiversation

noun

ter·​gi·​ver·​sa·​tion ˌtər-ˌji-vər-ˈsā-shən  -ˌgi-; ˌtər-ji-(ˌ)vər-

1: evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : EQUIVOCATION

2: desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith

https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/tergiversation

Day 9 (DDRD 2,085) July 17, 2023

 

Read to page 403, which leaves a mere 34 pages. And I'm thinking I will probably finish them off, as (1) it's a pretty exciting read! and (2) I for see a great deal of Waiting Time this afternoon. Time will tell, and so will I.

ADDENDUM: Had more waiting time than I thought. Finished A Tale of Two Cities and read the introductory pages to Great Expectations. And by the way, my average on AToTC was 51.1 pages per day. Not bad for an old man.

☮📤

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

(44) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(45) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(46) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(47) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(48) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages