My GE had both endings too -- and I was dissatisfied with both of them. But, I'm not sure how I would end it, in a way that was satisfying and realistic both.

Is she like a wacky cross between Mme. Defarge and El Debarge?

Hey! I am shitty with the memory. For the record, she did not wear 80s fashions while knitting.

I love Hemingway, and it's because of his terse sentences, and his descriptions that seem all surface at first but then aren't surface-y at all. (Plus all the booze.)

A Moveable Feast. Oh, sigh. Also, a very good example of needing context to fully appreciate the stories, but good gods it's lovely. And then there's the drinking.

For the record, she did not wear 80s fashions while knitting.

Though, that might provide for an amusing take on things if there's ever a Muppet Tale of Two Cities.

I've wanted to try Dickens. Where should I start?

No kidding.(Don't get me wrong...I respect their accomplishments, but there is something fundamental I missed...probably being a little apple-polisher dutifully sorting for water-images or some such thing. I'm just referring to me, here, mind you. When that teacher in "School of Rock" told that girl to "quit grade-grubbing", it brought back embarrassing memories.) I wonder sometimes what the value of "covering" so much in high school was since I passed tests on things I didn't really understand. But I know teachers can't sit around and wait for students' experience to catch up.

Drive-by post: t loving Nutty madlessly

I loathed Dickens when I was younger, and was forced to read Great Expectations and Dombey and Son in high school. I've since read a number of other novels including Tale of Two Cities twice, and liked him. But I was sure I hated Dickens after Dombey.

I still think his plotting is wank, and far too reliant on coincidence.

My favorite Cather novel is Death Comes for the Archbishop, which I adore as less of a novel than a book about a specific place and time. Not much happens in it, but it's so there... I liked My Antonia, but Death holds first place for me.

And Hardy, despite his power, makes me want to go home and slit my wrists. Jude the Obscure depressed the hell out of me. Yes, classism, yes, bad luck, yes, tragedy. But is there no hope anywhere? And that poor poor little boy they called "Father Time". Gah.

I've wanted to try Dickens. Where should I start?

Well, the first I ever read was probably A Christmas Carol way back in elementary school. And besides that, I've only read Great Expectations. So I would recommend one of those, or the much-talked-about Tale of Two Cities. All I know is that you do not, under any circumstances, start with Bleak House.

I've wanted to try Dickens. Where should I start?

It certainly can be debated, but I'd say A Tale of Two Cities or Hard Times.

does anyone else have classics/works of the canon that they love but figure everyone else hates?

I don't know about hate, exactly, but I've heard many people complain about Middlemarch being boooring.

Yeah, it starts a little slowly, even for a Victorian novel, but it is definitely worth it. For those who love sharply-drawn characters, the portrayal of two marriages that fail for very different reasons is amazing.

It really is a "study of provincial life," as the subtitle says; very rich, with multiple strands of plot illuminating each other.

I seem to really remember hating Pip when reading Great Expectations as a kid. I enjoyed much Dickens however, so maybe should try it again.