# Guess the book from the opening line **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963 "2003-04-15T22:28:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/101 "2003-04-17T20:38:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by koeeoaddi \* > > * * * > > “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” \*\* C. S. Lewis, _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_. “During the Civil War in the United States an influential club was formed in Baltimore.” “On February the 1st, 1887, the _Lady Vain_ was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1°S and longitude 107°W.” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/102 "2003-04-17T20:50:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*“On February the 1st, 1887, the _Lady Vain_ was lost by collision with a derelict when about the latitude 1°S and longitude 107°W.” \*\* The Island of Dr Moreau. Hope you’re thinking Michael York, not Val Kilmer ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/103 "2003-04-17T20:54:36Z")
“…, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls.” I’m missing out the first word 'cause it would be a _little_ obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/104 "2003-04-17T21:00:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\* > “During the Civil War in the United States an influential club was formed in Baltimore.” > \*\* _From the Earth to the Moon_, Jules Verne Hmm… my copy goes thusly, but I think we are on the same book, just a different translator. “During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland.” ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/105 "2003-04-17T21:08:40Z")
> [@](#): > > “Apart from the one in the church tower, there were five clocks in the village that kept reasonable time, and my father owned one of them.” **Ranchoth** is that _The White Mountains_ by John Christoper? Here’s mine: “It was a pleasure to burn.” “You don’t know about me without you have read a book…” ---
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/106 "2003-04-17T21:16:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\*Good call! It’s _Jurassic Park_. > > Here’s a couple that should be a bit more…challenging. > > “Apart from the one in the church tower, there were five clocks in the village that kept reasonable time, and my father owned one of them.” > > \*\* That’s **If Not Now, When?** by Primo Levi, I think Tapioca Dextrin’s latest was **Gormenghast** ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/107 "2003-04-17T21:17:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tapioca Dextrin \* > \*\*"…, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls." > > I’m missing out the first word 'cause it would be a _little_ obvious. \*\* The first word is “Gormenghast”, but the book is _Titus Groan_. And I try never to think about Val Kilmer, _especially_ in that context. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/108 "2003-04-17T21:19:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Here’s mine: “It was a pleasure to burn.” Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. ---
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/109 "2003-04-17T21:25:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*The first word is “Gormenghast”, but the book is _Titus Groan_. > > And I try never to think about Val Kilmer, _especially_ in that context. \*\* Stand corrected there. How about this, fairly easy, one: It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future ---
**Author:** ![Hanofer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c37758/32.png) [@Hanofer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanofer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/110 "2003-04-17T21:31:38Z")
What a well read group we are! Here you go: “It was Wang Lung’s wedding day.” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/111 "2003-04-17T21:32:22Z")
Gene Wolfe, _The Shadow of the Torturer_. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/112 "2003-04-17T21:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiat Lux \* > \*\* > It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future \*\* **The Book of the New Sun, vol. 1: The Shadow of the Torturer** by Gene Wolfe In a not-too-unrelated vein . . . “There is entwined seven-tentacled lightning.” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/113 "2003-04-17T21:35:31Z")
(Sorry - **Fiat Lux** ’s one is _The Shadow of the Torturer_). ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/114 "2003-04-17T21:37:15Z")
Darn you, Steve Wright! 😃 (“Missed it by THAT much!”) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/115 "2003-04-17T22:15:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Frankd6 \* > \*\* > “You don’t know about me without you have read a book…” \*\* Huckleberry Finn “I had just been through hell and must have looked like death warmed over walking into the saloon, because when I asked the bartender whether they served zombies he said, ‘Sure, what’ll you have?’” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/116 "2003-04-17T23:25:01Z")
“They called him Moshe the Beadle, as though he had never had a surname in his life.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/117 "2003-04-17T23:31:34Z")
“They called him Moshe the Beadle, as though he had never had a surname in his life.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/118 "2003-04-17T23:55:05Z")
Whoops. Sorry for the double post. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/119 "2003-04-18T00:33:20Z")
My personal all-time favorite opening line, though I’m not surprised it hasn’t appeared yet: “I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly consider’d how much depended upon what they were then doing;–that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;–and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost;–Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,–I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is likely to see me.” ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963/120 "2003-04-18T00:36:42Z")
Laurence Sterne, _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/168963.md?page=7)