Saturday, April 28, 2007

[saturday quiz] opening lines of novels

Half a mark for the book, half for the author:

1 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,....

2 It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him. Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice.

3 At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down on to the street from the little room he rented from some tenants in S--- Lane and slowly, almost hesitantly, set off towards K---n Bridge.

4 Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

5 It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

6 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

7 Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery.

8 Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

9 Mr. Sniggs, the Junior Dean, and Mr. Postlethwaite, the Domestic Bursar, sat alone in Mr. Snigg's room, overlooking the garden quad at Scone College.

10 It ws one of the mixed blocks, over on Central Avenue, one of those blocks that are not yet all negro. I had just come out of a three-chair barber shop where an agency thought a relief barber named Dimitrios Aleidis might be working. It was a small matter. His wife said she was willing to spend a little money to have him come home.

Answers here.

6 comments:

  1. Four point five.
    A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens.
    Harry Potter, JK Rowling.
    Catch 22, Errr..... Heller something
    1984. George Orwell
    Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams.

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  2. Adding Da vinci Code and Dan Brown, for a total for me of 4.

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  3. Love literary quizzes! Didn't get the Raymond Chandler or the Heller. Got the others! I need a g & t...

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  4. Well done, Bag, JMB and Welshcakes. G&T, eh? I went for a whisky but got sidetracked and had a Baileys instead. Cheers!

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  5. I managed six of the ten. Must do better...

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