# Guess the book **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 6, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004 "2000-11-06T21:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/41 "2000-11-16T22:56:20Z")
This is a real long shot, but is it one of the Bronte sisters? ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/42 "2000-11-16T23:00:49Z")
Or possibly Mary Shelley? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/43 "2000-11-17T00:02:38Z")
> [@](#): > > This is a real long shot, but is it one of the Bronte sisters? Yes! Charlotte, to be exact. It’s from _Villette_, her last novel. Your turn. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/44 "2000-11-17T04:06:05Z")
Ahh. I feel at peace. Now that we know what it is…was driving me crazy. Not that i’ve read Villette, really. Go, Pipe…and would you be adverse to such if I slipped you a bill under the table…in exchange for some information about your book? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/45 "2000-11-17T13:59:42Z")
Man, I really want to get one! I’ve got a great snippet to contribute! ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/46 "2000-11-17T17:46:34Z")
**Connor:** Feel free to jump ahead of me. I’m at work right now, and so unless you want a passage from the Saskatchewan Occupational Health and Safety Act (1993) or IPT’s Crane and Rigging Handbook, we’re SOL. I think I have a couple of books back at the house, so I’ll go after you. btw, my wife’s thesis for her Master’s was on the novels of Charlotte Bronte, so I probably should have figured that one out sooner. ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/47 "2000-11-18T19:28:59Z")
This one should be easy (my taste in books is notoriously low-brow.) “The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/48 "2000-11-19T01:27:18Z")
**Jitterbug Perfume** ; Tom Robbins. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/49 "2000-11-19T01:32:31Z")
Now here’s mine. Nobody’ll get this, I don’t think, but it’s stuck in my mind. “Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end. Ambition seemed satiated; and the vanquished, after having passed under the yoke of their enemy, concluded they might wear their chains in peace. Such were the hopes of those Scottish noblemen who, early in the preceding spring, had signed the bond of submission to a ruthless conqueror, purchasing life at the price of all that makes life estimable–liberty and honor.” ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/50 "2000-11-19T01:53:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\ ***Jitterbug Perfume** ; Tom Robbins. > > \*\* We have a weiner! I can’t even hazard a guess at yours, however. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/51 "2000-11-19T01:58:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\* > “Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end. Ambition seemed satiated; and the vanquished, after having passed under the yoke of their enemy, concluded they might wear their chains in peace. Such were the hopes of those Scottish noblemen who, early in the preceding spring, had signed the bond of submission to a ruthless conqueror, purchasing life at the price of all that makes life estimable–liberty and honor.” \*\* Is it Dorothy Dunnett? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/52 "2000-11-19T04:19:53Z")
No. I’ll give you a hint. It’s a historical novel, concerning an event that was portrayed in a movie that won an Oscar–while utterly trashing historical fact. ---
**Author:** ![Orshee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Orshee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orshee)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/53 "2000-11-19T04:36:19Z")
The Scottish Chiefs, by Jane Porter. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/54 "2000-11-20T05:37:11Z")
God-DAMN, Orshee! I didn’t know anyone else under age 70 had read it! ---
**Author:** ![Orshee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Orshee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orshee)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/55 "2000-11-21T02:28:42Z")
I must admit - I didn’t read the book. I did a little web research. I figured from the paragraph and the hint you gave that the movie was Braveheart, but I couldn’t find a novel credit for that movie. So I typed the first sentence into [Google.com](http://Google.com) and got several web site links that gave me the book’s title and author. Then I realized that I could do that with the first line of just about any book, so I didn’t add a line of my own. ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/56 "2000-11-21T12:13:12Z")
come on guys, no cheating. ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/57 "2000-11-21T15:58:15Z")
Who’s got the next passage? ---
**Author:** ![LazarusLong42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/58 "2000-11-21T16:28:07Z")
"Current theories on the creation of the Universe state that, if it was created at all and didn’t just start, as it were, unofficially, it came into being between ten and twenty thousand million years ago. By the same token the earth itself is generally supposed to be about four and a half thousand million years old. “These dates are incorrect.” ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/59 "2000-11-21T18:46:14Z")
Brief History of Time by Steven Hawkings? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/60 "2000-11-22T01:06:48Z")
I would have to say ditto for that one. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=4)