Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities (review)

retary to Queen Victoria. Mrs. Ponsonby, a note points out, "initially met George Eliot at the Priory 16 March 1873."The story ofPrincess Louise asking to be introduced to George Eliot is well-known; the friendship between Eliot and Mrs. Ponsonby is another example ofthe way in which the now famous author, once a social pariah, was in the 1 870s accepted by women at all levels. George Eliot's letters strike one as more intense, more serious in tone than Lewes' overall. The subjects vary— the health offriends, the pleasure oftheir new home, Witley Heights, Surrey, musical and literary evenings. Some provide valuable additions to her views on women found in the novels. For instance, in July 1870 in a letter to Mrs. Lytton previously published only in extracts and corrupt copies, she discusses women's tendency to live too exclusively in the affections, & though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share ofthe more independent life.... It is piteous to see the helplessness ofsome sweet women when their affections are disappointed; because all their teaching has been, that they can only delight in study ofany kind for the sake ofa personal love. They have never contemplated an independent delight in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. (letter 538) Lest one despair that this short volume might not be followed by another in a few years, an Addenda section after the regular sequence gives eight more letters, four from Lewes and four from Eliot, that came to light too late to be included in the chronological sequence; furthermore, a note directs the reader to 1 3 Eliot letters and one from Lewes that were published in John Beer's Providence andLove: Studies in Wordsworth, Channing, Myers, George Eliot, andRuskin (1998), just as volume 3 of the GHL letters was in final proof. The addenda include a summary of these letters. One hopes that die University ofVictoria Press will continue to support the collecting ofletters by George Eliot and George Henry Lewes in this accessible and inexpensive format, for there are undoubtedly more that will come to light in future. Charles Dickens:A Tale ofTwo Cities. CD-ROM. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1999. Michael Kramp Washington State University Like many ofthe recently-released CD-ROMs in literary studies, CharUsDickens: A TaU ofTwo Citiesoffers an exhaustive treatment ofthe novel and its author. It is a technically impressive resource for the study ofDickens and his text that should SPRING 2001 + ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * 107 be helpful for teachers and students alike. While itwill certainly encourage an eager secondary or post-secondary student to continue his/her investigation ofthe narrative , the CD-ROM will also be useful to teachers, both for out-of-class preparation and in-class practice. Students will enjoy die visual splendor ofthe dramatization of key scenes, the art gallery, and the virtual tutorials; teachers will appreciate the extensive cross-referencing of the dramatized scenes with the complete text and die extensive background material on Dickens and his corpus. The CDROM also offers examples ofliterary criticism on A TaU ofTwo Cities, analyses of the major characters, timelines and maps of Victorian England, and a lengthy bibliography for further study ofdie novel, including internet, filmic, and printed sources. CharUs Dickens: A Tale ofTwo Cities is an entertaining and a fecund resource for the examination of the text and its author, but it devotes far too much attention to the life ofthe author, leading to a limited and unorganized treatment of the cultural context of the narrative. The CD-ROM actually combines its material on Dickens' biography with its consideration of Victorian life and society in the section labeled "Dickens: His Life and Works." This structure ofthe technology reveals its attempt to bury the cultural history ofrhe Victorian world in die experiences and literary productions of Dickens. The CD-ROM provides an impressive chronology juxtaposing Dickens' life with major nineteenth-century literary and political events, but this timetable is notably unconcerned with international happenings, especially the colonial successes and failures ofthe British empire. In addition, the discussion of Victorian society is poorly ordered. Users must scroll...