title: Great Expectations and Hard Times (Nonesuch Dickens)
author:  Charles Dickens 
description: "No more handsome edition of Dickens has yet appeared, nor is it easy to conceive of any which might surpass this one." --The Scotsman
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  #  A Tale of Two Cities
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Charles Dickens
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### 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
  
  
  of comparison 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