![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is also an example of how the very best can break the rules the rest of us should wisely try to live by. 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. Not only is the writing wonderfully paced, with clever use of gentle repetition at the start of phrases, but the images invoked could apply to many other eras, including our own: Never having read the book, I recently decided to put that right and discovered just how evocative the rest of the opening paragraph is. ![]() Even people with only the most cursory knowledge of the writings of Charles Dickens usually know about the fantastic start to A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. ![]()
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