# Yet another "Guess the book from the opening line" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408 "2007-11-22T06:32:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/61 "2007-11-23T23:48:40Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Actually, IIRC, Snoopy was quoting some old-time author whose name I can’t recall ( and I refuse to google-cheat ), who was well regarded in his day, but these days is mostly known for that one line. [/QUOTE] Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who had a bad writing contest named after him, one which the SDMB’s own **Boyo Jim** won. Is the nineteenth century really old-time now? Literature has a four thousand year history. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/62 "2007-11-23T23:53:12Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Is the nineteenth century really old-time now? Literature has a four thousand year history. [/QUOTE] Anything older than most or all people now alive is “old-time”, as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/63 "2007-11-23T23:53:31Z")
“It began as a mistake.” — **Post Office** by Charles Bukowski “For a long time I used to go to bed early.” — **Swann’s Way** , first volume of _In Search of Lost Time_ by Marcel Proust ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/64 "2007-11-24T00:34:18Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Actually, IIRC, Snoopy was quoting some old-time author whose name I can’t recall ( and I refuse to google-cheat ), who was well regarded in his day, but these days is mostly known for that one line. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who had a bad writing contest named after him, one which the SDMB’s own **Boyo Jim** won. Is the nineteenth century really old-time now? Literature has a four thousand year history. [/QUOTE] So you should know, B-L did not write “It was a dark and stormy.” (End of sentence.) He went on for another several lines in the same sentence, all purply and puffed.\* So, I stand by my original answer: “It was not B-L.” - “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” –Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830) Thanks to: [http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/](http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/) ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/65 "2007-11-24T00:47:56Z")
[QUOTE=Intelligently Designed] “It began as a mistake.” — **Post Office** by Charles Bukowski [/QUOTE] Yes. ---
**Author:** ![cromulent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b4bc9f/32.png) [@cromulent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cromulent)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/66 "2007-11-24T01:36:58Z")
“It was a dark and stormy night.” – A Wrinkle in Time A couple of new ones – “The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum.” “All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.” ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/67 "2007-11-24T02:19:26Z")
I suck at this so I don’t have any guesses, but I bought a book today I’ve always wanted to read. It starts with: “When the reserve tank ran dry too, and the engine choked and died, I guessed I was ten or fifteen miles from Gaya.” ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/68 "2007-11-24T04:11:56Z")
[QUOTE=cromulent] “It was a dark and stormy night.” – A Wrinkle in Time A couple of new ones – “The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum.” [/QUOTE] Joy Luck Club ---
**Author:** ![VampyChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@VampyChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VampyChick)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/69 "2007-11-24T08:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaGirl] “Snow was falling on Riverside, great feather-white puffs that veiled the cracks in the facades of its ruined houses, slowly softening the harsh contours of jagged roof and fallen beam.” [/QUOTE] _Swordspoint_ by Ellen Kushner. “She scowled at her orange juice.” “Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/70 "2007-11-24T12:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Gotten: “In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part . . .” [/QUOTE] **The Colour of Magic** , by Terry Pratchett Three entries: “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o’clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.” “There were angels in the glass, two four six many of them, each one shuffling into his place in line like an alderman at the Lord Mayor’s show.” “September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap.” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@GorillaGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaGirl)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/71 "2007-11-24T14:40:29Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaGirl] “Snow was falling on Riverside, great feather-white puffs that veiled the cracks in the facades of its ruined houses, slowly softening the harsh contours of jagged roof and fallen beam.” [QUOTE=VampyChick] _Swordspoint_ by Ellen Kushner. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] Correct! ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/72 "2007-11-24T18:49:29Z")
[QUOTE=j666] Snoopy. [It wasn’t B-L] What’s the hint for #52? [/QUOTE] 1. A young writer _born_ in the Caribbean. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/73 "2007-11-24T19:07:30Z")
[QUOTE=Tapiotar] “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o’clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.” [/QUOTE] _Fifth Business_, by Robertson Davies. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/74 "2007-11-24T20:22:17Z")
“We slept in what once had been a gymnasium.” Bonus points for: “The weather beaten trail wound ahead into the dust racked climes of the baren land which dominates large portions of the Norgolian empire.” ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/75 "2007-11-24T20:30:16Z")
[QUOTE=Paladud] “We slept in what once had been a gymnasium.” [/QUOTE] _The Handmaid’s Tale_, by Margaret Atwood. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/76 "2007-11-24T20:42:55Z")
**HAVE BEEN SOLVED:** “It begins, as most things begin, with a song”: _Anansi Boys_, by Neil Gaiman. “This time there would be no witnesses”: _Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency_, by Douglas Adams. “There were four of us…”: _Three Men in a Boat_, by Jerome K. Jerome. “The primroses were over.”: _Watership Down_, by Richard Adams. “I went down to the Piraeus…”: _Republic_, by Plato. “All states, all powers…”: _The Prince_, by Niccolò Machiavelli. “When he was thirteen…”: _To Kill a Mockingbird_, by Harper Lee. “In the ancient city of London…”: _The Prince and the Pauper_, by Mark Twain. “Midway in the journey of our life…”: _Inferno_, by Dante Alighieri. “It began as a mistake”: _Post Office_, by Charles Bukowski. “For a long time I used to go to bed early”: _Swann’s Way_, by Marcel Proust. “It was a dark and stormy night”: _A Wrinkle in Time_, by Madeleine L’Engle. “The old woman remembered…”: _The Joy Luck Club_, by Amy Tan. “Snow was falling on Riverside…”: _Swordspoint_, by Ellen Kushner. “In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions…”: _The Colour of Magic_, by Terry Pratchett. “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster…”: _Fifth Business_, by Robertson Davies. “We slept in what once had been a gymnasium”: _The Handmaid’s Tale_, by Margaret Atwood. **HAVE NOT BEEN SOLVED:** “AUTHOR: Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, came to power in 1740.” “Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.” “The weather beaten trail wound ahead into the dust racked climes of the baren land which dominates large portions of the Norgolian empire.” “There were angels in the glass, two four six many of them, each one shuffling into his place in line like an alderman at the Lord Mayor’s show.” “September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap.” “When the reserve tank ran dry too, and the engine choked and died, I guessed I was ten or fifteen miles from Gaya.” “All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.” “One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot.” “The Empire, having long been divided, must unite; having long been united, must divide.” “We were on our way to the colmado for an errand, a beer for my tío, when Rafa stood still and tilted his head, as if listening to a message I couldn’t hear, something beamed in from afar.” “There’s a light on in the attic.” “Death came for him by mistake.” “The first facet was purpose.” “She scowled at her orange juice.” “Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” ---
**Author:** ![cromulent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b4bc9f/32.png) [@cromulent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cromulent)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/77 "2007-11-24T20:58:37Z")
“Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” – **The Poisonwood Bible** ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/78 "2007-11-24T20:58:48Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] _The Handmaid’s Tale_, by Margaret Atwood. [/QUOTE] Correct. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/79 "2007-11-24T21:18:02Z")
“One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot.” This has got to be **Thomas Hardy - The Mayor of Casterbridge** “We were on our way to the colmado for an errand, a beer for my tío, when Rafa stood still and tilted his head, as if listening to a message I couldn’t hear, something beamed in from afar.” \*\* Junot Díaz - Drown\*\* Now mine: _“I was captured by the Fascist Militia on 13 December 1943”._ ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/80 "2007-11-24T21:21:26Z")
[QUOTE=Martha] “One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot.” This has got to be **Thomas Hardy - The Mayor of Casterbridge** “We were on our way to the colmado for an errand, a beer for my tío, when Rafa stood still and tilted his head, as if listening to a message I couldn’t hear, something beamed in from afar.” \*\* Junot Díaz - Drown\*\* [/QUOTE] Absolutely correct on both! How’d you do that? BTW: **j666** got Mayor in post 57. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408.md?page=5)