"Without A Guide" and "A Tale of Two Cities"

Without a Guide - Contemporary Women's Travel Adventures edited by Katherine Govier

This is a collection of short travel stories from some of the world's best known female authors, including Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Annie Proulx and Carol Shields. The stories are meant to be some of their more memorable travel experiences, but I was a bit disappointed to find them focusing less on the places they were visiting and more on what was happening to them personally at the time.

I am usually a big fan of travel stories. I'm not able to travel myself so I devour other people's travel experiences with great expectation and excitement. These stories, though all set in different places around the world, didn't make any of them seem appealing. Many of the stories are about negative experiences and one, called "On The Train To Hell And Can't Get Off", is just weird. It closes by telling us that the author is still on the train, that we are with her, and that none of us are ever getting off. Not your usual travel tale.

I did find the writing a pleasure to read, if not the stories. These are, after all, proven authors, so though  I can't say I enjoyed the book, I don't feel my time was wasted.


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

There's no way I'm going to review a Dickens novel, but for those who don't know the story, it's set during the French Revolution and takes place in both London and Paris. It's tragic because it's set in a tragic time, but it's not all unhappy. As it says in its famous opening line:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." 

The closing line is also a famous one, one I never really understood until I read the novel in spite of its being quoted frequently in other writings:

"It is a far, far, better thing that I do, than I have ever done;

it is a far, far, better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

What else can I say? It's Dickens. If you love Dickens, you'll love A Tale of Two Cities.