ABC Wednesday, T for Tales

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with T.

 

 

 

 I was looking for an appropriate word beginning with "T", when my eye caught a series of books for children written by Beatrix Potter, all of them containing the word "Tale"or "Tales" in the title. Then I also saw a novel written by Charles Dickens:"A Tale of Two Cities".

First we should find out what the word "tale" means.

Well here are a few meanings:

 

noun

1.a narrative that relates the details of some real or imaginary event, incident, or case; story:

a tale of two Cities.

2.a literary composition having the form of such a narrative.

3.a falsehood; lie.

4.a rumor or piece of gossip, often malicious or untrue.

5.the full number or amount.

6.Archaic. enumeration; count.

7.Obsolete. talk; discourse.

Origin of tale

Middle English

Old English

900

before 900; Middle English; Old English talu (series, list, narrative, story); cognate with Dutch taal ( speech, language), German Zahl ( number), Old Norse tala (number, speech). See tell

" The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer.  Between 1386 and 1389 Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury in order to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral."

Tales are very old sometimes, even before 900 there were tales to be found. Very difficult to read,but the modern tales are very popular especially if they are written as fairy tales and for children, like those of Beatrix Potter, who illustrated her books herself. These books have nothing to do with history, like the Canterbury Tales.

 

 

One of the many novels of Charles Dickens is a historical novel called "A Tale of Two Cities". 

   "A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events."

These are the first sentences of the book

ABC Wednesday, L of Literature Quiz

Quiz : Who has written these lines? Can you  mention the titles of the books? You could use Google of course, but wouldn't it be nice if you did it all by yourself? I am sure this quiz is not difficult.

1. O brave new world,

That has such people in it..

( used by two authors)

2. ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL 

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

3.It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...

4. To be or not to be...

5.The Road goes ever on and on 

Down from the door where it began. 

Now far ahead the Road has gone, 

And I must follow, if I can, 

Pursuing it with eager feet, 

Until it joins some larger way 

Where many paths and errands meet. 

And whither then? I cannot say.

6.Old  Marley was as dead as a doornail.

7. Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.....

8.Jack:May I ask you then what you would advise me to do? I need hardly say I would do anything in the world to ensure Gwendolen's happiness.

Lady B.: I would strongly advise you,Mr W., to try  and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.

9.Please Sir may I have some more?

10. "Petrificus  Totalus"..."Impedimenta! Incarcerus!

 

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Here are the authors, some of them  have used two or more of the quotations,

 and one quotation was used by two authors.

 Rudyard Kipling

William Shakespeare

Oscar Wilde

 J.K. Rowling

Charles Dickens

Aldous Huxley

J.R.R. Tolkien

George Orwell

I am looking forward to seeing your answers!

 We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words    beginning with L.

ABC Wednesday, T for A Tale of Two Cities.

"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".
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
English novelist (1812 - 1870)

Charles Dickens is renowned for his humour, but A Tale of Two Cities is one of his least comical books. Dickens also uses his humour in the book to show different points of view. The book is full of tragic situations, leaving little room for intended humour provided by Dickens.


The first book of the novel takes place in 1775.The two cities are Paris and London.It's a book about two men, both in love with the same woman. They are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette.After many adventures in and out of prison, Sydney Carton who looks very much like his rival Charles Darnay, sacrifices his life under the guillotine.




With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or

Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with T.

ABC Wednesday, O for Oliver Twist.

Oliver Twist is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities.



Oliver Twist is notable for Dickens' unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives. The book exposed the cruel treatment of many a waif-child in London, which increased international concern in what is sometimes known as "The Great London Waif Crisis": the large number of orphans in London in the Dickens era.
The musical, on the other hand is romantic and entertaining in a very pleasant way. The actors are excellent singers and dancers. Still there are some sad moments in the musical, but the story has a happy end!

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or

Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with O.

ABC Wednesday, N for Nicholas Nickleby

Another book by the great Charles Dickens! His third book.

Nicholas Nickleby; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839.
The novel centers around the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father death. His Uncle Ralph, who thinks Nicholas will never amount to anything, plays the role of the bad character.

For all romantic people among you: it has a happy ending, like most of Dickens's books.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or

Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with N.

ABC Wednesday, F for Food and Fagin.

 

Another book written by Charles Dickens ( see my post of August 9, 2011) is Oliver Twist, which serves as the plot for the musical "Oliver", written by Lionel Bart."Food, Glorious Food", is the opening song of this musical ! Oliver Twist is a young orphan, living in an orphanage, which is in fact a horrible workhouse where the boys are badly treated and poorly fed. It is sung when the workhouse boys are dreaming and fantasizing about food while going to collect their gruel from the staff of the workhouse.Later on Oliver escapes from the undertaker's shop where he had to work. He arrives in London and meets the street urchin Dodger, who takes him to a place, where he lives together with many other street boys under the leadership of Fagin. One thing is sure:"The food is great!".But he has to go out with the boys learning to pick pockets, which he cannot do,then he meets an old gentleman who saves him from a lot of dangerous situations and who adopts him as his grandson.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.We started round 9 of the fascinating meme of ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with F.

Oliver is one of my favourite musicals. I saw it several times on video and I showed it to my students learning English. The songs are great and the characters are well performed. Oliver is a sweet young orphan and Dodger is a street urchin with a heart of gold. Fagin is absolutely inimitable. Here he comes as the man who trains little street boys to pick pockets.



OLIVER-You Gotta Pick A Pocket Or Two door billy_declan

ABC Wednesday, D for Dickens

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, on February 7, 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second of eight children. His mother had been in service to Lord Crew, and his father worked as a clerk for the Naval Pay office. John Dickens was imprisoned for debt when Charles was young. Charles Dickens went to work at a blacking warehouse, managed by a relative of his mother, when he was twelve, and his brush with hard times and poverty affected him deeply. He later recounted these experiences in the semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield. Similarly, the concern for social justice and reform which surfaced later in his writings grew out of the harsh conditions he experienced in the warehouse. Dickens died in 1870.

"David Copperfield" was the very first Dickens book I read. And of course "A Christmas Carol" the second one.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with D.