Book 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Dickens paints a picture of an ambivalent age, simultaneously the "best of times" and the "worst of times." Life proceeds in both France and England as if there would never be any change. Both France and England have a cruel sense of justice but England, unlike the more repressive France, is suffering under a great deal of criminal disorder. Burglaries and highwaymen continue their unpleasant reign despite the omnipresent hangman. The potential for sudden change was is appreciated by either regime.

Book 1, Chapter 1 Analysis

France and England will be shortly interrupted by the French and American Revolution. Great changes are about to take place, but despite the violence and the desperate punishments of the regimes, nothing dramatic is expected.