Dickens Bicentenary

"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."
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, 1859


I suspect the first phrase is one of the best known openers of a book in the English language, though I'm sure some could quote the whole sentence, which makes up the first paragraph in the book. Strikes me nothing much has changed!

Happy 200th Birthday Mr Charles John Huffam Dickens (07.02.1812 - 09.06.1870). We read "Great Expectations", "Oliver Twist" and "A Christmas Carol at school, set texts for English Literature. "Great Expectations" almost put me off Dickens entirely, but the other two saved the day.

Today I've dug out "A Tale of Two Cities" and will endeavour to read it in honour of Dicken's bicentenary. I recently visited the Dickens Museum in London and it whetted my appetite for the "Pickwick Papers", so I may get round to reading that this year too. Either will make a change from my usual reading matter. I'll definitely be asking for more tea before I get to the end of them.

This is my entry for Blast's 2012 Challenge - Fashion. Just look at the Ulster coat the guy on the left is wearing - wouldn't mind those coming back into fashion in the current sub-zero temperatures. Of course Dickens is, and was, a very fashionable author too.