Famous First Lines Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to the quiz I posted last week about the first lines of famous books, or famous first lines that are just incredible.

  •  1. “It was a dark and stormy night.”
  •           (Y) Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
  • 2. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
  •           (A) Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)
  • 3. “Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own.”
  •           (T) Dan Brown, Angels & Demons
  • 4. “‘I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.'”
  •           (B) Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
  • 5. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
  •           (K) William Gibson, Neuromancer
  • 6. “He woke, and remembered dying.”
  •           (G) Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal.
  • 7. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
  •           (L) George Orwell, 1984
  • 8. “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
  •           (C) Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  • 9. “Call me Ishmael.”
  •           (V) Herman Melville, Moby Dick
  • 10. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
  •           (N) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
  • 11. “All children, except one, grow up.”
  •           (D) J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
  • 12. “‘TOM!’ No answer. ‘TOM!’ No answer.”
  •           (P) Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer
  • 13. “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
  •           (Q) C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • 14. “I see…,” said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window.”
  •           (E) Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire; The Vampire Chronicles, [1976]
  • 15. “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
  •           (X) Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)
  •  16. “It was a pleasure to burn.”
  •           (J) Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, [1953]
  • 17. “The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.”
  •           (S) H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, [1895]
  • 18. “Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not on the subconscious level where savage things grow.”
  •           (O) Stephen King, Carrie, [1974]
  • 19. “When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
  •           (U) JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, [1954]
  • 20. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
  •           (M) J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
  • 21. “As soon as he stepped into the dim apartment he knew he was dead.”
  •           (F) Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts, [2004]
  • 22. “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”
  •           (R) Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, [2008]
  • 23. “The Sun did not shine.”
  •           (W) Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat
  • 24. “All this happened, more or less.”
  •           (H) Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, [1969]
  • 25. “Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery.”
  •           (I) Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

 

© Copyright 2012 Jeff, All rights Reserved. Written For: Jeffrey Olsen
Writing

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