# 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:** 5
**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, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/81 "2007-11-24T21:24:22Z")
Educated guesses, confirmed by Google. ---
**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 24, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/82 "2007-11-24T21:43:57Z")
Oh, **Martha** , how I was moved by this book. “I was captured by the Fascist Militia on 13 December 1943” opens Primo Levi’s **If This Is a Man**. I could never forget that one, in my opinion the best one about life in death camps. I’ve seen, though, that the title of the book in its English translation has been changed to _Survival in Auschwitz_. ---
**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/83 "2007-11-24T21:49:05Z")
I was captured by the Fascist Militia on 13 December 1943- Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi. “‘Barrabas came to us by sea,’ the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.” (I see on preview I’ve been beaten. Didn’t know that the title had been changed) ---
**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 24, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/84 "2007-11-24T21:59:22Z")
Hum, **RedRoses** , I might stand slightly corrected. It may be, in fact, that _If This Is a Man_ was and is the title for the UK edition, and _Survival in Auschwitz_ for the US. Maybe one of our British Doper friends could corroborate that. ---
**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, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/85 "2007-11-24T22:23:42Z")
Wikipedia confirms it. ---
**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, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/86 "2007-11-24T22:29:01Z")
“September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap” – _The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cover_, Christopher Moore. “Cigars have burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they have believed they had.” ---
**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 25, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/87 "2007-11-25T00:52:06Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Wikipedia confirms it. [/QUOTE] Yes, my UK edition is called “If this is a Man”. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/88 "2007-11-25T02:43:59Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] “Cigars have burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they have believed they had.” [/QUOTE] Lost Horizon, James Hilton. ---
**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 25, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/89 "2007-11-25T04:09:47Z")
> [@](#): > > “Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.” I’m going to guess _Middlemarch_ on this one, though I may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Severiane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@Severiane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severiane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/90 "2007-11-25T10:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=Intelligently Designed] “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 [/QUOTE] Yes ! You’re right. Congratulations ! ---
**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 25, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/91 "2007-11-25T18:33:38Z")
**HAVE BEEN SOLVED:** “Imagine a ruin…”: - _The Poisonwood Bible_, Barbara Kingsolver. “We were on our way…”: _Drown_, by Junot Díaz. “I was captured by the Fascist Militia…”: _If This Is a Man_, by Primo Levi. “September in Pine Cove…”: _The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove_, by Christopher Moore. “Cigars have burned low…”: _Lost Horizon_, by James Hilton. “Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty…”: _Middlemarch_, by George Eliot. **HAVE NOT BEEN SOLVED:** “AUTHOR: Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, came to power in 1740.” “‘Barrabas came to us by sea,’ the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.” “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.” “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.” “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.” ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/92 "2007-11-25T18:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] **HAVE BEEN SOLVED:** “The Empire, having long been divided, must unite; having long been united, must divide.” [/QUOTE] _Three Kingdoms: Chinese Classics_ “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 one, _The Mayor of Casterbridge_, Thomas Hardy, was solved by **j666** and **Martha**. New opening line: “They shoot the white girl first.” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/93 "2007-11-25T19:14:09Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Yog Sothoth is pleased with your perceptiveness. [/QUOTE] Then my life is complete. 😃 And here’s my submission… “What’s it going to be then?” ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/94 "2007-11-25T19:18:22Z")
[QUOTE=ryobserver] Lost Horizon, James Hilton. [/QUOTE] Correct. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/95 "2007-11-25T19:29:57Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] “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.” [/QUOTE] Okay, I’m trying to do this without actually looking it up. Is the above The Mayor of Casterbridge? Oh shoot, I was beaten to it. Darn, one of the few I thought I knew. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/96 "2007-11-25T19:31:19Z")
“‘Barrabas came to us by sea,’ the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.” - House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende. Try this one: “The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/97 "2007-11-25T19:39:06Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] “What’s it going to be then?” [/QUOTE] You forgot the “eh.” **A Clockwork Orange**. “It had all been arranged by telegram; Jeremy Pordage was to look out for a coloured chauffeur in a grey uniform with a carnation in the button-hole; and the coloured chauffeur was to look out for a middle-aged Englishman carrying the Poetical Works of Wordsworth.” ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/98 "2007-11-25T20:13:21Z")
My favorite: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” ---
**Author:** ![stucco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@stucco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stucco)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/99 "2007-11-25T20:23:09Z")
[QUOTE=BlackNGold] My favorite: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” [/QUOTE] _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ – Hunter S. Thompson ---
**Author:** ![stucco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@stucco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stucco)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408/100 "2007-11-25T20:36:23Z")
Here’s mine: “The full truth of this odd matter is what the world has long been looking for, and public curiosity is sure to welcome.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-guess-the-book-from-the-opening-line/427408.md?page=6)