ディケンズの文章から、"so far"の解釈についてお尋ねします。

"it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,... 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."

"so far"　は「それまでのところ」でしょうか？意味がしっくりきません。

No.1 ベストアンサー 回答者： noname#11434 回答日時： 2004/12/16 05:53

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.

far は"like the present period"を強める副詞。「"実に" 現代とよく似ている」といった感じ。それにsoが付き、直後のカンマのあとに来るthatと呼応してso ～ that の構文になっているんじゃないでしょうか？　カンマが入っているのでthat以下は「その結果」として訳します。