Cruising the Classics

it is my great pleasure to present a classic which may seem weighty to some. If you
are wondering “How can they do this in an hour?”, when you arrive, I think your doubts
will be pleasantly appeased by the end of the evening. Here some elaboration is required.
In 1859, Charles Dickens first published A Tale Of Two Cities through the venerable
firm of Chapman and Hall. It is one of two historical novels in the Dickens cannon,
the other being Little Dorian Grey. A Tale Of Two Cities though has probably the
most well known line in English literature. “It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times.” It also tells the story of the French peasantry’s uprising and the
beginnings of the French Revolution. The cities in question are London and Paris
and the action starts in 1757 with the fals imprissonment of Dr. Alexandre Manette
in the Bastile. The book is long and while enjoyable it can be a bit cumbersome if
one is not familiar with the Dickens form of prose. But this is not a book discussion.
Let’s jump almost eighty years in the future. For those who have been paying attention
and regularly listening you know my friend Mr Hancik has brought us two Mercury Theater
broadcasts. His Sunday night debut was Treasure Island he then followed that up by
request with Dracula during the Halloween Marathon. If you listened to Treasure Island
you remember Orson Wells saying that next week it would againbe be the best and worst
of times as the theater troupe would be doing A Tale OF Two Cities. On Thursday we
will revissit that third eppisode and dive in to late eighteenth century London and
Paris. We’ll be in the Bastile with Dr. Nanette in court with Sydney Carton and Charles
Darnier and intensely listening as a French aristocracy is brought swiftly under
the guillotine.

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