43: Bk 1 Chs 1-2 — A Tale of Two Cities (Start of Book)

You'll need to know a few things, like...

What's a blunderbuss?

This, this is a blunderbuss.

This is Chuck.

Who was Mrs. Southcott?

She was an English spiritualist.

What was the Cock-Lane Ghost?

One of the first ever psychic scams. Read about it. You'll find MANY different versions on the web.

This is the issue of Spin-Off that I need two bloody pages from...here's the Sock thing from Stasia which I thought was very helpful. Check out Pandora and Last.fm

And in both the "any publicity is good publicity" and the "I've never heard of an idea so dangerous it couldn't be talked about" departments: the Librarians have lost their minds! Anyone remember Are You There God? It's Me Margaret? Anyone? Anyone?

And if you have the travel bug:

West Coast Folks. East Coast Folks.

Fun!

And don't forget: WWMDFK?

(What Would Madame DeFarge Knit?)

Think on't.

Thanks to our readers Michael Sirois and Kara Shalinberg.

And, finally:

Spinneret's cogent and I think important note on "Screw":

From various sources -

As in England, early lawmakers in this country adopted 10 as the age of consent.

The age of consent in England was raised from 12 (which is what it was when James was born in 1843) to 13 in 1875 and then to 16 in 1886.

The Factory Act from 1844 reduced the hours of work for children between 8 and 13 to six and a half a day, either in the morning or afternoon, no child being allowed to work in both on the same day, except on alternate days, and then only for ten hours

The Factory Act, 1891 raising the minimum age at which a child can be set to work from ten to eleven.

So the perspective on children was a little different at that point, T.O.T.S. (funny that) being published in 1898. Accepting that these children are not from the working class they still would not have fallen under the societal view as young innocents.

Thanks for the great read.

2026 Author Revision: Dead links removed.

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Looking for a particular book? Here are the Start-of-Book episode numbers for you:

Just go to the search bar of the website and look up the number of your chosen book.

Pride & Prejudice 1–20	Turn of the Screw 30–39	A Tale of Two Cities 43–66	Tristan & Isolde 67–73
Frankenstein 74–89	Little Women 90–117	Jekyll & Hyde 119–123	The Scarlet Letter 123–148
Flatland 149–159	Persuasion 160–171	Connecticut Yankee 172–188	The Woman in White 192–220
Dracula 223–246	Gulliver's Travels 249–272	Jane Eyre 273–304	The Age of Innocence 305–330
North & South 331–365	Herland 366–377	Sense & Sensibility 378–401	The Count of Monte Cristo 402–474
Anne of Green Gables 477–500	Treasure Island 501–515	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 516–545	Northanger Abbey 546–561
The Leavenworth Case 562–580	Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc 581–609	The Three Musketeers 610–648	Emma 649–678
Cranford 679–694	Mr Harrison's Confession 695–703	Nancy Drew and The Secret in the Old Clock 704– present