I really like the opening paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities” you posted last week. Actually I have memorized the paragraph. However, I have a few questions about this paragraph, and I wonder if you could answer them.
1. Why “Light” and “Darkness” are capitalized in the sentence “It was the season of Light; It was the season of Darkness.”?
2. Who are the “authorities”? Are they British royal families?
3. Does “its” mean “the period” in “its noisiest authorities” and “on its being received” ?
4. What does the last sentence mean? (that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
I thank you in advance for your time!
The opening Paragraph:
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.
