"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".
Going through this quotation brings such great memories some sad/ some awful/ some lovely/ and yes some very scary! hehehe going to English was always a challenge... Mrs Van As challenged us to the core... She got me to stand in front and explain my depiction of this quote - i hated the book, i hated literature classes , i hated everyone who was in that class especially when they started laughing - well at least that's what i thought...
In fact i have come to realise over the years that i love this book - what i hated was my inability to believe that i also - could understand - that i also - can speak in front of people, i loved Literature - i loved the fact that it was there to push me forward to take me on a journey to yet discover - I loved Mrs Van As - She believed in me more that i did....she picked on us because she believed in us - we thought she hated us, but she actually loved the people we could become.
Charles Dickens - a Tale of Two Cities is a fascinating book (focusing on the French revolution) I'm actually loving it now - it makes so much sense now.... yesterday i asked myself what i remembered about the book and what stood out the most : the first thing that came to mind was the word the Guillotine (a weapon that they used to kill people) how strange is that! The second thing was ....The first part of the quote " It was the best of times - it was the worst of times" as time went by the book became alive in me; Literature became fun....i was part of the book... i can see Lucie Mannett... ooh what a lovely character. i literally saw the wine cellar in Paris i went on the journey with this book and it laid a great foundation for many other books after this one.... it was pure bliss!
I'm so grateful for all those years i didn't want to go to Literature classes - yet something inside of me believed that i could do just about anything if i put my mind to it... that I Too was smart just like any other person in that class.
Today as i think of this book I'm appreciating the beauty of contrast - the Journey of life
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