《双城记》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯于1859年出版的一部小说。以下是《双城记》开头的英文原文：

"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."

这段开头以对比和对偶的方式描述了一个充满矛盾和悖论的时代。它表达了人们生活在极好和极坏、智慧和愚蠢、信仰与怀疑、光明与黑暗、希望与绝望交织的时代。这样的对比暗示了故事中发生的社会动荡与个人命运纷繁复杂的情节。