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A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
by
Charles Dickens
W
Wisehouse Classics
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
Illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne ( “Phiz”), 1859
Cover: Scene from the French Revolution ” by Walter William Ouless
Executive Editor Sam Vaseghi
Published by Wisehouse Classics – Sweden
ISBN 978-91-7637-137-4
Wisehouse Classics is a Wisehouse Imprint.
© Wisehouse 2016 – Sweden
© Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Contents
Book the First—Recalled to Life
Book the Second—the Golden Thread
7. Monseigneur in Town
8. Monseigneur in the Country
9. The Gorgon’s Head
10. Two Promises
11. A Companion Picture
12. The Fellow of Delicacy
13. The Fellow of No Delicacy
14. The Honest Tradesman
15. Knitting
16. Still Knitting
17. One Night
18. Nine Days
19. An Opinion
20. A Plea
21. Echoing Footsteps
22. The Sea Still Rises
23. Fire Rises
24. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
Book the Third—the Track of a Storm
1. In Secret
2. The Grindstone
3. The Shadow
4. Calm in Storm
5. The Wood–Sawyer
6. Triumph
7. A Knock at the Door
8. A Hand at Cards
9. The Game Made
10. The Substance of the Shadow
11. Dusk
12. Darkness
13. Fifty-two
14. The Knitting Done
15. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
Book the First—Recalled to Life
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 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 lately come