不久前看完了《雙城記》，覺得很有感觸。書中的內容主要是關於法國大革命時期的事情。看到革命之前平民被貴族們無情踩踏欺壓的時候，悲憤之情油然而生，所以在故事講到革命終於發生的時候感歎惡有惡報也感到一陣痛快。只是看著看著，又不禁困惑起來，翻了翻書頁，離結局還有些距離。之所以會有這種困惑，是因為在之後作者又細緻而用心良苦地描繪了革命中的景象：所有人都瘋了一般去尋找任何有嫌疑的人，然後將這些人送上他們本來如此憎惡的斷頭臺——無論他們是否真的有罪——並且歡呼慶祝。書裡的主角正是這樣一個無辜被送上斷頭臺的人，儘管他為人正直，並且因為正義感早在革命之前就摒棄了自己的貴族地位。而因此，我也終於明白來自開篇首段那句耳熟能詳的話語的意義：”這是最好的時代，也是最壞的時代。”
Not long ago, I have finished reading A Tale of Two Cities, and felt very moved. The content is mainly about what happened before and during the French Revolution. Seeing in the book how the civilian have been prosecuted by the aristocracy, I felt so sorrowful and angry that, when the story came to the moment of the start of the revolution, I thought that justice had finally been done. But, as the tale continued, confusion went in to my mind; I checked the pages and saw that there was still some distance from the ending. The reason is that, after this, the author went on describing what happened in the revolution: crowds of people scurry around to find any suspects, put them under the guillotine which they were so hateful against, and burst into cheer. The main character of the book is just such a person, despite his good heart and his denouncing his aristocracy before the revolution. Thus, I could more understand the renown sentence in the first paragraph: “This is the best of time, this is the worst of time.”
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