First Chapter -- First Paragraph -- Tuesday Intros

Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea has started a fun new meme First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros. This week's intro is from Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar:

It was the worst of times.

When Charles Dickens returned home from his triumphant American reading tour in June 1842 the specter of hunger was stalking England. The piece of bread had doubled after a string of bad harvests. The cities were mobbed by impoverished rural migrants looking for work or, failing that, charity. The cotton industry was in the fourth year of a deep slump, and unemployed factory hands were forced to rely on public relief or private soup kitchens. Thomas Carlyle, the conservative social critic, warned grimly, 'With millions no longer able to live . . . it is clear that the Nation itself is on the way to suicidal death.'