-The Paradise War, Stephen Lawhead
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| Image courtesy of Wikipedia, because Google Images is just that cool. |
I would say I hate to always be borrowing Jenny's ideas, but I don't. She has such good ones. Recently, she posted a brief but poignant remark on the importance of the opening lines of a book, quoting several of her favorites' at the end by way of example/an excuse to fill a post with really good quotes. This is what I resort to blogging when my brain is too tired to produce anything but unedited snippets of awkward.
A fair few of my favorites found their way into Jenny's post, and I shall not bother to recapitulate those; Rosemary Sutcliff, Beowulf, and Perelandra being foremost in my memory as such (you may find her post here). But sans-the-aforementioned, here is my own, per Jenny's request and my own desire to throw this together.
First Impressions: {Redux}
Blandings Castle slept in the sunshine.
-Summer Lightning, P.G. Wodehouse
The whole land of Skree was green and flat.
-On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Andrew Peterson
So, now. One day soon they hang me for a rogue.
-Scarlet, Stephen Lawhead
The Egotists' Club is one of the most genial places in London.
-The Complete Stories, Dorothy Sayers
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
-Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot
I am old now and have not much to fear from the anger of the gods.
-'Til We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
Beloved in our Dearest Lord, you are those worthies 'of whom this world is not worthy.'
-Heaven on Earth, Thomas Boston
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.
-Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne
There is an ancient proverb people tell
that none can judge the life of any man
for good or bad until that man is dead;
but I, for my part, though I am still living,
know well that mine is miserable and hard.
-The Women of Trachis, Sophocles
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition, and Astrology.
-The Once & Future King, T.H. White
My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.
-Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Sophie le Patourel was reading aloud to her two daughters from the Book of Ruth, as they lay upon their backboards digesting their dinners and improving their deportment.
-Green Dolphin Street, Elizabeth Goudge
A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate."
-The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy
A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate."
-The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy
Mr. Asa Lee Pinion, of the Chicago Comet, had crossed half of America, the whole of the Atlantic, and eventually even Picadilly Circus, in pursuit of the notable, if not notorious figure of Count Raoul de Marillac.
-Four Faultless Felons, G.K. Chesterton
Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.
-Persuasion, Jane Austen
Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous--nor wished to be.
-Innocence of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.
-Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.
The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.
-The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
-Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
Kinda curious as to how/why Persuasion has the longest opening sentence. Perhaps if I have/will read more Jane Austin it will make sense?
Okay you got me hooked, bravo! That list has a few books I've read or want to that I'm thinking fondly of now
Sure, sure, sure, blame me for everything... :P
I'm afraid there are only a handful in here that I know: Peterson, Sayers, Lewis, Milne! T.H. White, the Baroness, and the opening line of The Man Who Was Thursday. All right, maybe half of these are familiar.
I forgot to mention in my letter that I'm getting a copy of Howl's Moving Castle. I'm such a forgetful person.
Bother you, Anna, you took "Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'" and I was going to do that one!
Ahem, pettiness aside. After having watched the Ioan Gruffudd/Justine Waddell adaptation of "Great Expectations," I hear Gruffudd's voice saying the opening line when I read it. I adore the opening line of "Winnie-the-Pooh," of course. Also, I need to get and read "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness."
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Can I blame both you and Jenny when I make a post about this? *makes special mention of In the Hall of the Dragon King*
This looks like so much fun! I would do this too, but you stole practically all my favorite books/quotes so I shan't.