Famous First Lines, Part 2

Here’s how to play…Identify the first lines of these famous novels by telling me what book it’s from. Leave a comment with the # of the first line and the title of the book and I’ll cross it off the list. No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun! If you know them all, please don’t guess every one, maybe five max? Mid week I’ll offer hints if needed.

 1. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Jason, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone by Rowling

2. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Mark, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

3. Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her. HINT: This was the beginning of a famous movie trilogy. Amy, The Godfather by Puzo

4. At a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to remember, there lived a little while ago one of those gentlemen who are wont to keep a lance in the rack, an old buckler, a lean horse and a swift greyhoundDON QUIXOTE by Cervantes

5. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY by Clarke

6. Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.   THE DIVINE COMEDY, INFERNO by Dante Alighieri

7. Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. Mark, The DaVinci Code by Brown

8. Call me Ishmael. Jason, Moby Dick by Melville

9. All children, except one, grow up.  PETER PAN by Barrie

10. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Amy, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

 

5 thoughts on “Famous First Lines, Part 2

  1. The old roomate says:

    I have titles, but not authors (embarassingly enough); so those for which I have both . . .

    2 is The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
    7 is the DaVinci Code (Brown)

    My apologies to the great writers of #s 4 and 9.

  2. stacybuckeye says:

    Actually, I was thinking of you when I was typing 2. Go figure. I’m sure that 4 & 9 will not be offended-they are long gone 🙂 I have 100 pages left in Lamb. Somehow when I read passages aloud to Jason they are never as funny as when I read them the first time.

  3. The old roomate says:

    I know the feeling. I would be literally crippled with laughter, read it to Maura, and listen to the crickets.

    The lines from Gatsby:

    “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,” said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.”

    Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

    . . .

    As I went over to say goodbye I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

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