Author Topic: First line of novels quiz (Read 24586 times)

RJ · « **Reply #375 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:09:21 pm »

Phew! Unity restored, I think.

So, while we're waiting for someone to get Clarion's without artificial aid (

I wasn't far enough along the right lines ...), how about this:

Quote

In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in."

(MS Word would have corrected those commas ...

)

clarion · « **Reply #376 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:11:04 pm »

Sounds Dickensian, or a pastiche.

Is it Leon Garfield?

Peter · « **Reply #377 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:12:20 pm »

Richard Jeffries - "After London" ?

HTFB · « **Reply #378 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:16:24 pm »

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.

(I started an essay at A-level by asserting that this was an allusion to Lovelace's To Lucasta. Pretentious, wrong, but it helps my memory now.)

clarion · « **Reply #379 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:18:34 pm »

Clue to mine: The excised name is not a traditional British (or even European) one.

RJ · « **Reply #380 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:28:47 pm »

Quote from: HTFB on 10 March, 2011, 10:16:24 pm

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.

(I started an essay at A-level by asserting that this was an allusion to Lovelace's To Lucasta. Pretentious, wrong, but it helps my memory now.)

Correct ...

citoyen · « **Reply #381 on:** 10 March, 2011, 10:34:50 pm »

Quote from: HTFB on 10 March, 2011, 10:16:24 pm

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.

Pah! Beaten to it. Love that book. I could have got it from the first five words.

d.

citoyen · « **Reply #382 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:12:26 pm »

Quote

Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet.

(NB: not strictly a novel.)

d.

Tom B · « **Reply #383 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:19:02 pm »

something by Roald Dahl?

citoyen · « **Reply #384 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:27:11 pm »

Ha! No. It's good but it's not right.

d.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #385 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:27:34 pm »

James Joyce but I can't remember the story title.

clarion · « **Reply #386 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:30:00 pm »

Literally?

>>>>>>>>> Grammar thread

Deano · « **Reply #387 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:40:33 pm »

It's the first line of The Dead, from Dubliners.

citoyen · « **Reply #388 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:42:46 pm »

Quote from: Deano on 26 April, 2012, 03:40:33 pm

It's the first line of The Dead, from Dubliners.

Bing!

Clarion - you walked right into my carefully laid trap.

d.

clarion · « **Reply #389 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:51:22 pm »

Eyethangyew!

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #390 on:** 26 April, 2012, 03:54:28 pm »

Quote from: citoyen on 26 April, 2012, 03:42:46 pm

Quote from: Deano on 26 April, 2012, 03:40:33 pm
It's the first line of The Dead, from Dubliners.

Bing!

Clarion - you walked right into my carefully laid trap.

d.

Literary walked into it.

Deano · « **Reply #391 on:** 26 April, 2012, 04:05:06 pm »

My turn then?

An easy one, from the limited collection I have with me. Apologies if it's a repetition.

Quote

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.

Steph · « **Reply #392 on:** 26 April, 2012, 06:27:20 pm »

You missed a bit. F-451, Bradbury. A fave of mine.

Deano · « **Reply #393 on:** 26 April, 2012, 06:37:21 pm »

So I did! It's the formatting on the ebook version. Doubly well done, then.

Steph · « **Reply #394 on:** 26 April, 2012, 06:46:58 pm »

I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to
any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon
the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity
during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.

Peter · « **Reply #395 on:** 27 April, 2012, 12:34:46 am »

Could it be Washington Irving? Sleepy Hollow, or Rip Van Winkle?

Steph · « **Reply #396 on:** 27 April, 2012, 10:21:49 am »

Nope, the two tales are almost exactly a hundred years apart in publication.

Peter · « **Reply #397 on:** 27 April, 2012, 10:28:44 am »

Yes, I just realised; it's Tarzan, isn't it?

citoyen · « **Reply #398 on:** 27 April, 2012, 10:31:18 am »

Quote from: Deano on 26 April, 2012, 06:37:21 pm

So I did! It's the formatting on the ebook version. Doubly well done, then.

I thought he'd banned ebook publication (a nice irony). Has he relented?

d.

Steph · « **Reply #399 on:** 27 April, 2012, 10:36:34 am »

Quote from: Peter on 27 April, 2012, 10:28:44 am

Yes, I just realised; it's Tarzan, isn't it?

Absolutely!