NovelVictorian · 18594 min · 2 passagesSteady

A Tale of Two Cities — Opening

The famous opening is a joke, an argument and a warning in one sentence. Count the contradictions, then notice who gets to speak last.

Class War Time

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The opening, first half

Anaphora

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 ,

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Plain English

It was the best of times and the worst of times, the age of wisdom and of foolishness, an era of belief and of disbelief, a season of light and of darkness, a spring of hope and a winter of despair.

The opening, second half

Irony

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.

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Plain English

We had everything ahead of us and nothing ahead of us; we were all heading straight to heaven and all heading the other way. In short, the period was so much like our own that some of its loudest authorities insisted it had to be described only in extremes.

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The Street · Victorian literature

Doubt, respectability, and the noise of a city. Every answer comes with the reason and the line that proves it.

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