| TWOCITIES | The Charles Dickens novel with the opening line, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of time |
| TALEOFTWOCITIES | Charles Dickens novel, with "A" |
| BELOVED | 1987 novel with the opening lines "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom" |
| ATALEOFTWOCITIES | Dickens novel with the 56-Across as its backdrop |
| OFTWO | 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' is the first line in A Tale ... Cities (2,3) |
| OPENINGSENTENCE | "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...," e.g. |
| ANAPHORA | Device used in "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" |
| BEST | "It was the ___ of times, it was the worst of times" |
| TIMES | "It was the best of ___, it was the worst of ___" |
| WAS | "It ___ the best of times, it ___ the worst of times..." |
| SPACENEEDLE | Iconic observational tower of Seattle which which was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time it was built: 2 wds. |
| LOLITA | 1955 novel with the line "It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight" |
| NUCLEAR | Russia's Chernobyl disaster was the worst accident in the history of this type of power plant |
| KONG | The beast in the line "It was beauty killed the beast" |
| III | "Richard ___" (play with the opening line "Now is the winter of our discontent") |
| BED | Word one of this puzzle's constructors spelled aloud when the other was a toddler so she wouldn't know what time it was |
| DRDEMENTO | Host of a syndicated radio show from 1974-2010 with the opening line, ""Wind up your radios" |
| RIVEN | Sequel to the computer game Myst, it was the best-selling game of 1997 |
| TWERKING | In earlier times it was, we're told, Charles dancing provocatively |
| FISHBURNE | This actor was only fourteen years old when he won a role in Apocalypse Now - he was seventeen by the time it was shot; Laurence ... |
