Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "He rode into our valley in the summer of '89. I was a kid then, barely topping the backboard of father's old chuck-wagon." Which famous western novel begins with these words?
2. This is the first line of which novel? "On a pitch-black, starless night, a solitary man was trudging along the main road from Marchiennes to Montsou, ten kilometres of cobblestones running straight as a die across the bare plain between fields of beet."
3. "It was Wang Lung's marriage day." Which novel is this the first line of?
4. "These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket." Which novel begins with these words?
5. "I suppose every boy wants to help his country in some way or other." Which book begins this way?
6. "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years." Which story begins with this line?
7. "'The Signora had no business to do it,' said Miss Bartlett, 'no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart. Oh, Lucy!'" Which novel are these the first lines of?
8. "In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the "Times"." Which novel starts this way?
9. Which book begins with the following lines? "The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon."
10. "There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck." Which story begins this way?
11. Which novel begins with these lines? "The stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to the burden he carried."
12. "Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns." Which novel begins with these words?
13. Which story begins with these lines? "X - This day when it had light mother called me retch. You retch she said."
14. "A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin." Which novel starts with these words?
15. "It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it." Which novel are these the first lines of?
16. Which novel begins this way? "The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards."
17. "The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, 'Why don't you go back and sleep? We can ring you if he shows up'." Which novel is this the first line of?
18. "'Please sir, is this Plumfield?' asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him." Which novel opens this way?
19. Which novel opens with these words? "Dr. Strauss says I shud rite down what I think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on."
20. "In the hospital of the orphanage - the boys' division at St. Cloud's, Maine - two nurses were in charge of naming the new babies and checking that their little penises were healing from the obligatory circumcision."
Which John Irving novel is this?
21. "On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge." Which novel begins with this line?
22. "Lessa woke, cold." Which novel begins this way?
23. "It was my privilege to know the late Jack Crabb - frontiersman, Indian scout, gunfighter, buffalo hunter, adopted Cheyenne - in his final days upon this earth." Which novel has this as its first line?
24. Which novel begins this way? "On September 15th, 1981, a boy named Jack Sawyer stood where the water and land come together, hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking out at the steady Atlantic."
25. Which story begins with these words? "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock..."
Source: Author
agony
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
Bruyere before going online.
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