BBC：100部英国人最喜欢的文学作品].ATaleOfTwoCities.pdf

A Tale of Two Cities





By Charles Dickens












Prepared and Published by:
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Book the First—Recalled to Life
I The Period
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 parison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of
England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of
France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of
loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual
revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had
recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the
Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were
made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been
laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year
last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the
earthly order of events had e to the English Crown and People, from a congress of
British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the
human race than munications