In which Charles Dickens novel does the line "It was the best of times" appear?

The line “It was the best of times” appears in Charles Dickens’s novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” It is the opening of the book’s famous first sentence, which immediately contrasts wisdom and foolishness, hope and despair, and light and darkness.

Published in 1859, the historical novel is set mainly in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. Its central characters include Charles Darnay, an aristocrat who rejects his family’s abuses; Sydney Carton, a troubled English lawyer; and Lucie Manette, whose compassion connects the novel’s opposing worlds. The story examines social inequality, political violence, sacrifice, resurrection, and the possibility of personal redemption.

The quotation is often shortened to its opening phrase, but Dickens’s original sentence continues through a long series of deliberate oppositions. The “two cities” are London and Paris, and the revolutionary setting explains the passage’s mixture of optimism and dread. The other listed novels are also Dickens works, but none begins with this celebrated line.