A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry

Reviewed for Dragonmount by Michael

eBook available 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the summer of brat, it was the winter of despair. It is a gilded age of desperation as the wealthy enrich themselves at the expense of the everyperson. . .

It feels appropriate to revisit A Tale of Two Cities in the Year of our Lady 2025. Charles Dickens’ classic story set during the French Revolution against the towering backdrop of Le Guillotine, examines the lengths that people will go to for both love and revenge.

A Far Better Thing, by H. G. Parry, puts a Fae twist on the story, asking “what if Sydney Carton was Charles Darnay’s fairy changeling?”

Now, if either of those names, or the names of the Defarges; Miss Pross; Messers Cruncher, Stryver, Lorry, or Barsad, are unfamiliar to you—even if you have read A Tale of Two Cities at some point in your life—I'm going to suggest that you do what I did, and begin by reading or rereading the original work. (If you're into audiobooks, it's free to listen to on THAT app…)

I know that I read the Wishbone version, and the Great Illustrated Classics version, and I think that I also read the full text at one point in my youth. However, it has been a while and I remembered only the broadest strokes: Sydney Carton is a brilliant but troubled lawyer, Madame Defarge is a quietly terrifying menace with her knitting, and the story ends with Carton going to the Guillotine in place of the innocent Charles Darnay. Spoiler alert for the 1859 book, A Tale of Two Cities…

Rereading the original was a powerful experience. Dickens is one of the greats for a reason and his prose absolutely flows, barely slowed by the linguistic differences in the style that 150+ years will do. Even though I knew the ending was coming, the last several pages had me in tears as Sydney Carton holds the young girl’s hand and comforts her as they approach their final moments.

The machinations of the Defarges as their, and especially Madame’s, need for vengeance cannot be sated and goes from righteous to monstrous; the quiet strength of Lucie Manette as she bears the love of so many; the bottomless self-loathing and destruction of the brilliant Carton all explore complex dimensions of humanity in timeless fashion.

The introduction to the audiobook by actor Simon Callow claims that Dickens sacrificed some of his famous character building for the sake of telling a larger story of, well, two cities. Hearing that, I questioned it a bit—Madame Defarge? And Sydney Carton? Iconic characters, at the best and worst of times! 

While it is true that the characters in A Tale of Two Cities are complex, they are presented essentially as is. We especially do not get a satisfactory explanation as to why Sydney Carton is so miserable in his life. A Far Better Thing fleshes out these characters, exploring motivations and subtleties that are indeed missing from the original text.

A Far Better Thing is told from Carton’s perspective, and we quickly discover that he was taken from his cradle as an infant and raised in the Faerie realm to be a servant of the Fae. Returned to the mortal realms, his servitude consists primarily of having to help the Faeries abduct other infants. There are some additional details which are better explored in the pages of the book, but this despicable task alone is sufficient to understand why Carton may have a bit of self-loathing.

Reading the premise of A Far Better Thing, which is described as “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell meets A Tale of Two Cities,” I was curious to see what a fantasy retelling of a classic novel looked like. Would this book replace the events of the original? Was it a close retelling or an “inspired by” situation? The actuality is that the two books can exist as canon simultaneously, for we quickly learn that most mortals—including most of Dickens’ characters—are not aware of the Fae presence. Essentially, A Tale of Two Cities is the “Muggle” telling of the story and A Far Better Thing is the magical side of the story. Our narrator, being intimately connected to both the Faerie and mortal realms, can guide us readers through the intricacies of the overlap. Dickens, for all of the magic behind his pen, did not have these insights and could only relay the mortal version of the story.

Reading the two tales back-to-back generated the effect of a detective explaining howandwhodunnit at the end of a good mystery. All of the events that we saw with one set of eyes are now explored with a second set, revealing details that we missed or could not have known. The depth of pain and love in Sydney Carton’s heart is explored in wrenching detail, and his sacrifice at the end strikes the reader even harder as the full scope of his redemption is revealed.

The events of A Tale of Two Cities appear almost exactly as they do in the original, but because we are in Carton’s POV, and he is not featured on every page of Dickens’ work, we are treated to some original action and characters that allow Parry’s storytelling and prose to shine. The prose pays homage to Dickens’ writing style, and Parry’s expert familiarity (her PhD is in English literature) with the source material is evident. 

If I am to find criticism—and I truly have to plumb the depths to do so—I will say that the final moments, the final sentence even, left me wanting to read the titular line. Although I understand that a retelling should be just that, I finished the book wanting to read that iconic last sentence of A Tale of Two Cities: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.” I think it would have hit the same, powerful mark but far deeper after spending so much time with the deeds and misrest of Sydney Carton. There is, also, a slight timeline issue which I only raise as a persnickety editorial type, but at one point Carton’s vision is blurring and he describes the world as looking “like an Impressionist painting.” Beautiful imagery, especially in the setting of Paris, but the Impressionist movement did not begin until the 1860s, and the events surrounding the French Revolution took place in the late 1700s.

Overall, A Far Better Thing is a beautiful, fun, and creative read. I enjoyed that it led me to rediscover A Tale of Two Cities (I cannot recommend enough reading the original first), and it more than succeeds in the ambitious undertaking of improving upon a certified classic.