Another entry in my evolving audio narration of Charles Dickens’s magisterial novel, A Tale of Two Cities.  This chapter is called “The Grindstone.”  It is a difficult chapter to read because it involves characters of different sexes exchanging dialogue quickly and in states of duress.  Unlike other chapters where the characters are over the top in the writing, and where as a result the dialogue can be read in a similar fashion, here the pathos must be presented sympathetically with a minimum of melodrama.  I hope I have succeeded!

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In this episode, the mansion of the Marquis St. Evremonde goes up in flames as the Revolutionary mob torches the ancestral home of Charles Darnay (secretly the new Marquis).  The old Marquis’s functionary, Gabelle, is, in consequence, about to be arrested.   This will draw Darnay from safety in England to mortal peril in France, as he will decide to journey to Paris–and possible imprisonment and death–to save his friend, Gabelle.

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Another preview of my upcoming Librivox recording of A Tale of Two Cities, due out in April 2020. This is chapter 30, “Drawn to the Loadstone Rock.” If you enjoy this, won’t you leave a comment telling me so?

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