Python: Unicode and "\xe2\x80\x99" driving me batty

If you're stuck with Python 2 and want to use Rahul's answer

import io
with io.open("oblivion.txt", "r", encoding='utf-8') as bookFile:
    wordList = bookFile.readlines()

Try open with encoding as utf-8:

with open("oblivion.txt", "r", encoding='utf-8') as bookFile:
    wordList = bookFile.readlines()