"It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times..."
In classic literature, nothing's more iconic, and
quoted ad nauseam,
as the first line of Dickens’ classic.
It's a beast of sentence, but it sets the tone for the book's theme of
duality:
"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. "
I find Dickens' book a bit tedious, but I love the
historical period, so it all woks out in the end according to my tastes. The main source for this classic was
Carlyle's three volume work The French Revolution,
and frankly, the plot of the book is fairly predictable...somebody's definitely going to lose their head...
You can read a first edition copy here: