“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens: Famous opening—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”—a prelude to Theme of the Double.

“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…”

When I first read this novel many years ago, I read this opening as an eloquent, clever statement of a timeless truth. And it is.

Nevertheless, it is not how most people think. Most people, if asked what kind of times we are living in, would say that it was predominantly good or predominantly bad, or a mixture of good and bad; whereas Dickens says it is both very good and very bad, a contradiction (typical of multiple personality, since each personality has its own opinion).

Dickens’s opening lines are as if two persons—one an optimist, the other a pessimist—were issuing a joint statement: two persons or one person with multiple personality.

Indeed, even before the opening lines, there is the duality of the title, which seems natural enough, considering the story, but it was not the only title that Dickens could have used.

It may not be fair to read deep meaning into every word in a novel, but the title (if chosen by the author) and opening lines are among the least inadvertent.