19. Reread A Tale of Two Cities.

COMPLETED 12 February 2006
We had to read this in 8th grade English, and I fell in love with Sidney Carton and his making the ultimate sacrifice for the woman he loved and the man she loved. I still think the opening and closing lines of this work are some of the most moving ever written. I will admit, though, that rereading this as an adult was a bit of a chore. I bought an annotated edition and could not resist reading all the notes it contained. It might have been easier to avoid the notes, but that's not the sort of person and reader I am. I also found it quite interesting that whereas we read this in 8th grade, it was summer reading for my younger son's Advanced Placement English class. Does this mean high school has dumbed down five years in just a generation? It does make one wonder.