#dickens

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. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#charles-dickens #age

You are hard at work madam ," said the man near her. Yes," Answered Madam Defarge ; " I have a good deal to do." What do you make, Madam ?" Many things." For instance ---" For instance," returned Madam Defarge , composedly , Shrouds." The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, feeling it mightily close and oppressive . ↗

— Charles Dickens

#france #funny #humor #mob #revolution

I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries. ↗

— Jane Birkin

#because #chuckle #dickens #earthly #i

A heart well worth winning, and well won. A heart that, once won, goes through fire and water for the winner, and never changes, and is never daunted. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#love #our-mutual-friend #change

I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making explanation for itself and wearing it out. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#beauty

I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare. ↗

— Ben Okri

#dickens #home #i #literature #london

Between Scott on the earlier side and Dickens and Thackeray on the other, there was an immense production of novels, illustrated by not a few names which should rank high in the second class, while some would promote more than one of them to the first. ↗

— George Saintsbury

#class #dickens #earlier #few #first

All we have to do when reading Bleak House is to relax and let our spines take over. Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic delight is between the shoulder blades. That little shiver behind is quite certainly the highest form of emotion that humanity has attained when evolving pure art and pure science. Let us worship the spine and its tingle. ↗

— Vladimir Nabokov

#art

There are very few moments in a man's existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#disease #victorian #experience

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#uncle-tom-s-cabin #victorian #wilde #witty #death