Muhaha. I would definitely second that…
Well, it IS over 24 hours now! Want more game! Stamping of feet.
Okay I seriously doubt the starter of the thread will come in and drop kick me in the arse if I recontinue the game, so here goes…
I dreamt of falling trees in a awild storm
I was between them as a desolate shore
came to meet me and I ran, scared stiff
there was a trapdoor but I could not lift
it, I have started an affair
with your son, on a train somewhere,
in a dark tunnel, his hand was underneath
my dress between my thighs I could not
breathe
Okay this isn’t the very beginning of the novel; its actually right after the prolouge. Its one of my fave books…(this won’t really help you since most of you don’t know my fave books…) Go to it! 
Got it but cheated by searching. (It’s a book that I never even finished reading.) Let’s wait and see if someone can get the answer properly.
Is it The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas?
God, yes. So people DO pay attention to what I post.
Celyn you really should finish it; it rocks!!
Jek, your turn buddy.
YAY! I’m so happy I got it.
Here’s mine. I’ll tell you now that it’s from a collection of an author’s writings, so if you just get the name of the author, you’re good. I hope it’s not too hard … nah. Someone will get it.
Fields flowered around us, crimson with poppies; a noontide breeze played in the yellowing rye; on the horizon virginal buckwheat rose like the wall of a distant monastery. The Volyn's peaceful stream moved away from us in sinuous curves and was lost in the pearly haze of the birch groves; crawling between flowery slopes, it wound weary arms through a wilderness of hops. The orange sun rolled down the sky like a lopped-off head, and mild light glowed from the cloud gorges. The standards of the sunset flew above our heads. Into the cool of evening dripped the smell of yesterday's blood, of slaughtered horses.Some cheerful little work by Tolstoy? (Guessing)
Right nationality, wrong guy.
(sorry I didn’t post sooner - busy day at work.)
Hmm. I gave into temptation, and was surprised (almost disappointed) that an answer came up at once. But I have to admit that I’d never even heard of the author. Well, what an educational game. I shouldn’t think my local public library will have his stuff though.
How about if I leave it a little while in case someone soon comes along who genuinely recognises the passage?
Geez, I didn’t mean to bring the game to a screeching halt by introducing a totally unrecognizeable passage. The author is not terribly well known, but so good that I thought for sure that someone here would have read him. Should I give another hint?
The author did most of his writing in post-revolutionary Russia, and is best known for the fact that much of his work is now lost.
Oh, that’s the kind of hint that will REALLY encourage people. Heh heh heh. Well, I still think there is probably someone out there who can genuinely claim to recognise it, rather than my “learning with Google” version.
Sorry, I hadn’t realised it was my turn. I didn’t mean to hold up the game.
Yes, I was referring to the thing about Eric; and I liked Complicity as well. For some reason, I can’t seem to get on with his Iain “M” Banks sci-fi, though.
TomH Don’t know that it’s anybody’s turn in particular - I thought it was just whichever smartarse knows the answer, really. Which wasn’t me, sadly. And ditto, re. Iain M. Banks. I think it’s rather useful of him to use different names, as it makes the dreaded S.F. easier to avoid. “Whit” is quite fun. Damn, if I had a copy, I could find some strange passages in that.
Oh, up-to-the minute literary news - Malcolm Bradbury is dead. Hey, I wonder whether that means they will repeat the “History Man” on T.V. in Britain? Cynical, moi?
Bloody hell, he was 86! I’d always imagined him as an angry young academic in the 70s and therefore in his early 60s, possibly even mid-70s now, but obviously not.
That means he must have been going on for 60 when he wrote The History Man!
Well, checked Guardian and it reckons 68. But, then that’s the Grauniad, so I still don’t know! Makes more sense that 86, though.
I just hate the fact that my quote has put a traffic jam in this game. Celyn, if you think you know it, let’s have it, so we can have some new quotes. (And if I ever get another chance to play, I’m gonna go for an easy one.)
Isaac Babel Konarmiya/Red Cavalry
Let me offer an easy quote. I haven’t any books by me right now, so this is just off the top of my head, a quote i really like, but may seem like a sappy choice to you more learned dopers. Here is is:
“And so we beat on- boats against the current, borne back ceaslessly into the past.”
I think I’m even missing a line… so the quote may be a little fragmented but I think I it should ring a bell.
Celyn, yup, I checked the Guardian this morning as well. Looks like the 86 was a typo on the BBC News website last night.