I thought the book was pretty boring for the most part. The only character that really intrigued me was Therese Defarge. I definitely think she could be categorized as a shrewdish wife in Dicken's "stock characters". Then I read the part where Carton laid down his life for the Darnay's and I realized that no matter how boring the rest of the book was, the last two or three chapters made it totally worth it.