All the books are from the 20th century. Some might be termed “classics”, but most are just well-known or popular. Thanks to Danika’s post for the idea: this was fun!
ETA: As it’s now Monday in Coordinated Universal Time (?), I’ve revealed the answers to the unguessed lines.
- After the war was over, they bound him under the Mountain.
[The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay --- Janet] - Snow was falling on Riverside, great white feather-puffs that veiled the cracks in the façades of its ruined houses, slowly softening the harsh contours of jagged roof and fallen beam.
[Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner] - I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him.
[The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King --- Eva] - Once a term the whole school went for a walk—that is to say the three masters took part as well as all the boys.
[Maurice by E.M. Forster] - He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher — the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.
[Kim by Rudyard Kipling --- Annie, too] - Everyone knows it wasn’t like that.
To begin with, they make it sounds as if there wasn’t any argument; as if there wasn’t any panic—no one being pushed aside—no one being trampled—none of the animals howling—none of the people screaming blue murder.
[Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley --- Danika] - I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.
[I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith --- Sassymonkey] - The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself.
[Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman --- Janet] - It was Wang Lung’s marriage day.
[The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck] - 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.
[Fifth Business by Robertson Davies --- Annie]
If you can’t figure out which books they’re from, can you match the first lines with the last lines?
- She prayed. But not to the absent God. Never, never again to the absent God, but to the absent clouds, she prayed. And to the empty sky.
She prayed for rain.
[Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley --- Danika] - He waited for a little in the alley, then returned to the house, to correct his proofs and to devise some method of concealing the truth from Anne.
[Maurice by E.M. Forster] - But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.
[The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck] - Life itself proceeds in its unpredictable infinite patterns — so unlike the measured dance of stars — until, for the satisfaction of their entertainment, the watchers choose a point at which to stop.
[Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner] - And then it was cold, cold, and completely dark, as she took them through alone.
[The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay --- Janet] - The cottage was warm and filled with light, and smelt of tobacco and sulphur and the food that awaited us.
[The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King --- Eva] - And that, Headmaster, is all I have to tell you.
[Fifth Business by Robertson Davies --- Annie] - He crossed his hands on his lap and smiled, as a man may who has won salvation for himself and his beloved.
[Kim by Rudyard Kipling] - Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.
[I Capture the Castle] - And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind them; not even the doorway.
[Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman --- Janet]
Danika (OpenChannel) wrote, on October 26th, 2007 at 10:26 pm: