In the Beginning

 

(Daylily thrown in just for color. . .)

A couple of weeks ago, I got a catalog in the mail -- Bas Bleu, a book catalog for readers.  On the front, there was a cute little quiz with the title "Can you identify these famous first lines?"  I held on to it, because I thought it would be a fun little Blog Quiz (and I was feeling especially smug. . . because I correctly identified 7 of the 9 first lines.)

Anyway.  I can't seem to get my scanner to talk with my new computer. . . so this idea has languished for a couple of weeks.  At this point, I'm tiring of the squabble between my iMac and my HP scanner (the printer is working. . . it's just the scanner that's feeling pissy), so here goes.  Same quiz. . . just not so cute as the one on the cover of the catalog.

See how many of these famous first lines you can identify.  (Answers later this week.)

1. Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
2. Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.
3. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
4. Call me Ishmael.
5. 1. Nihilism stands at the door: whence comes this uncanniest of all guests?
6. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
7. I am a sick man. . . I am a spiteful man.  I am an unpleasant man.
8. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
9. In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.

How'd you do?

Comments

[margene]

Sadly, I only knew #4 and #8 and can make a good guess on a couple more.

[Marilyn]

A couple sounded familiar and a couple more I think I know but basically I didn't do so well! /sigh

[Diana Troldahl]

Well, I am certain of #4
The others not so much. But I tend to read genre fiction more than classics. I do like classics though, especially British ones.
I did recognize a writer or two, if not the specific work.

[kmkat]

3. Anna Karenina (I just finished listening to it today!)
4. Moby Dick
6. Something by Charles Dickens -- Great Expectations? David Copperfield?
7. Guessing: Bartleby the Scrivener? Whatever book it is that has Uriah Heep?
8. Pride and Prejudice

Fun quiz!

[Sue]

I am ashemed to say almost 3 - Moby Dick, a Jane Austen (but not which one) - or is there two and, oh no, can't remember the name of the rhyming one :-(

[chloe]

Well, I know #3 and #4 and #9. And I thought I knew everything.

[Patty]

I'm thinking maybe 4...