A wonderful corner for echoes

Abstract

This thesis argues that Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is a novel particularly interested in sound as a way of understanding human behavior and history. Working from the assumption that Dickens is primarily a visually oriented novelist, this thesis suggests A Tale of Two Cities is an anomaly in the Dickens canon. Building on the insights of cultural critics such as Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong, this thesis concludes that sonic metaphors provided Dickens with an effective medium to convey the disorder unleashed by the French Revolution.