Sentence No. 49 · 15 May 2026
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.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens — A Tale of Two Cities (1859) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
Every phrase here follows the same locked template: "it was the [noun] of [noun]." Recognising this anaphoric pattern means the phrases can only pair as subject + "of"-phrase — no phrase beginning with "of" ever opens a clause.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 6 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. The novel opens with one of the most famous passages in English literature — Dickens setting the scene of revolutionary France and England. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
A new sentence from a great book, every day.
Play today’s sentenceFree, no account. Or play this one — it will give the answer away.