Great passages – Dickens

Any literate reader will recognize the opening passage in “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. But one never tires of reading it.

“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.”

The novel ends with the guillotining of Sidney Carton, a principal protagonist. The book’s final poetic line is familiar to virtually every reader of literature: “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.”