{"product_id":"2940014476270","title":"A Tale of Two Cities","description":"IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, it was the worst of times, it was the\u003cbr\u003eage of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch\u003cbr\u003eof belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season\u003cbr\u003eof Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring\u003cbr\u003eof hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before\u003cbr\u003eus, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct\u003cbr\u003eto Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short,\u003cbr\u003ethe period was so far like the present period, that some of its\u003cbr\u003enoisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good\u003cbr\u003eor for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.\u003cbr\u003eThere were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a\u003cbr\u003eplain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with\u003cbr\u003ea large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of\u003cbr\u003eFrance. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the\u003cbr\u003elords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things\u003cbr\u003ein general were settled for ever.\u003cbr\u003eIt was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred\u003cbr\u003eand seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England\u003cbr\u003eat that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had\u003cbr\u003erecently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of\u003cbr\u003ewhom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded\u003cbr\u003ethe sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements\u003cbr\u003ewere made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.\u003cbr\u003eEven the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen\u003cbr\u003eof years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this\u003cbr\u003every year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality)\u003cbr\u003erapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events\u003cbr\u003ehad lately come to the English Crown and People, from a\u003cbr\u003econgress of British subjects in America: which, strange to\u003cbr\u003erelate, have proved more important to the human race than\u003cbr\u003eany communications yet received through any of the chickens\u003cbr\u003eof the Cock-lane brood.\u003cbr\u003eFrance, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual\u003cbr\u003ethan her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding\u003cbr\u003esmoothness down hill, making paper money and spending\u003cbr\u003eit. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained\u003cbr\u003eherself, besides, with such humane achievements\u003cbr\u003eas sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue\u003cbr\u003etorn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he\u003cbr\u003ehad not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty\u003cbr\u003eprocession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance\u003cbr\u003eof some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that,\u003cbr\u003erooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing\u003cbr\u003etrees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked\u003cbr\u003eby the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into\u003cbr\u003eboards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack\u003cbr\u003eand a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in\u003cbr\u003ethe rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent\u003cbr\u003eto Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that\u003cbr\u003every day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed\u003cbr\u003eabout by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer,\u003cbr\u003eDeath, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.\u003cbr\u003eBut that Woodman and that Farmer, though they\u003cbr\u003ework unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as\u003cbr\u003ethey went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch\u003cbr\u003eas to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be\u003cbr\u003eatheistical and traitorous.\u003cbr\u003eIn England, there was scarcely an amount of order and\u003cbr\u003eprotection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries\u003cbr\u003eby armed men, and highway robberies, took place in\u003cbr\u003ethe capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned\u003cbr\u003enot to go out of town without removing their furniture to\u003cbr\u003eupholsterers’ warehouses for security; the highwayman in\u003cbr\u003ethe dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being\u003cbr\u003erecognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom\u003cbr\u003ehe stopped in his character of “the Captain,” gallantly shot\u003cbr\u003ehim through the head and rode away; the mall was waylaid\u003cbr\u003eby seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then\u003cbr\u003egot shot dead himself by the other four, “in consequence of\u003cbr\u003ethe failure of his ammunition:” after which the mall was\u003cbr\u003erobbed in peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor\u003cbr\u003eof London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green,\u003cbr\u003eby one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature\u003cbr\u003ein sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought\u003cbr\u003ebattles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired\u003cbr\u003eblunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot\u003cbr\u003eand ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks\u003cbr\u003eof noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went\u003cbr\u003einto St. Giles’s, to search for contraband goods, and the mob\u003cbr\u003efired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fire","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47161630064880,"sku":"2940014476270","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014476270_p0.jpg?v=1763609527","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014476270","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}