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
Openings & first lines
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the…”
- Author
- Charles Dickens
- Work
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Year
- 1859
- Chapter / part
- Chapter I: The Period
- Length
- 118 words
- Source
- Project Gutenberg eBook #98
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Charles Dickens died in 1870, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1859. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
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