The opening lines

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."

Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman who looked at the ceiling, stared at him. All
the human breath in the place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire. Eager faces strained round
pillars and corners, to get a sight of him; spectators in back rows stood up, not to miss a hair of him;
people on the floor of the court, laid their hands on the shoulders of the people before them, to help
themselves, at anybody's cost, to a view of him—stood a-tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to
nothing, to see every inch of him. Conspicuous among these latter, like an animated bit of the spiked
wall of Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at the prisoner the beery breath of a whet he had taken as he came
along, and discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer, and gin, and tea, and coffee, and what
not, that flowed at him, and already broke upon the great windows behind him in an impure mist and
rain.