Below is a list of sentences, each being the first of some book or story. The goal is to identify the title and author of each. Obviously, this could be done by brute force using a search engine, so you are all on you honor (or, in Jonathan’s case, honour) not to do that. No need to ROT13: if you think you know one, say so, and let anyone who might disagree say that. The rules are:
- One point for the first correct answer.
- Both title and author are required: No partial credit.
- The game ends when all are answered.
- Whoever has the most right answers wins.
Note that to avoid giving anything away, most proper nouns have been Warner-Brothers-ized, e.g. the first line of Huck Finn might become
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Daffy Duck.
Everybody ready? Here we go:
- In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of Tasmania, and proceeded to Albuquerque to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army.
- Babs Bunny, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
- Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
- The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
- He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
- It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
- Someone must have slandered Wile E. Coyote, for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
- If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
- This is the saddest story I have ever heard.
- Stately, plump Porky Pig came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
- In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
- It was a pleasure to burn.
- It was love at first sight.
- He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.
- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
- Call me Sylvester
- All children, except one, grow up.
- A green hunting cap squeezed the top of a fleshy balloon of a head.
- It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
- Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.
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17. Peter Pan by JM BarrieReport
1. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Twain
4. Neuromancer, Gibson
5. Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
7. The Trial, Kafka
8. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
12. Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury
15. Tale of Two Cities, Dickens
16. Moby-Dick, Melville
18. Confederacy of Dunces, Toole
Man, a couple of these are driving me crazy because they seem so familiar yet I can’t place them, or I am pretty sure I know author but not work.Report
Dang I got at least one of these wrong. Oh well.Report
Okay, here’s my stab at some of the answers:
2. Capote, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” (very unsure about this one)
5. Hemingway, “Old Man and the Sea.” (pretty sure about this one)
8. Salinger, “Catcher in the Rye.”
10. [I have no idea, but I’m interested to know who’d do a parody of Joyce’s Ulysses.]
12. Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” (not 100% certain)
13. Heller, “Catch 22.”
15. Dickens, “Tale of Two Cities.”
19. [sounds very familiar, but just can’t place it.]
20. Henry James, “The Americans” [just a guess, but sounds like something he’d write, and I’ve never read “The Americans.”]Report
Ugh!….I didn’t read the part about proper nouns being warnerbrotherized.Report
That explains why you kept listing “What’s Opera, Doc” for each one…Report
3. Leo Tolstoy “Anna Karina”
6. George Orwell “1984”Report
1. At the Sign of the Four, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
12. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Boucher
19. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
[@glyph and @gabriel-conroy got most of the ones I knew, and a few more]Report
Clockwork Orange is by Anthony Burgess…Report
Urgh. You are right. I guess it’s clear I didn’t look things up…Report
Stinking honor code. I would have got #17, but I had to go online and double-check it. (I wouldn’t have gotten the author anyway.)Report
1. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
5. Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
6. 1984, Orwell
8. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
15. A Tale of Two Cities, DickensReport
Yeah I realized 1 had to be Doyle after I’d guessed Twain.Report
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Capote.
3. Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
4. Neuromance, Gibson.
5. The Old Man and the Sea, Hemmingway
6. 1984, Orwell
7. The Trial, Kafka
8. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
10. Ulysses, James Joyce.
11. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
12.Farenheit 451, Bradbury
15. A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens.
16. Moby Dick, Melville
17. Peter Pan, Barrie
19. Pride and Prejudice, Austen
18. A Confederacy of Dunces, TooleReport
Recap so far:
Glyph, 8 points: 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 16, 18
Gabriel, 2 points: 10, 13
Kolohe, 2 points: 3, 6
Kazzy, 1 point: 17
Doctor Jay, 1 point: 19
Mark, 1 point: 1
Saul, 1 point: 11
Still unguessed: 2, 9, 14, 20Report
Wow, I’m late to the party. I believe #2 is Emma by Jane Austen. 20 sounds familiar but I can’t place it.Report
#20 is Scaramouch (spelling) but I don’t recall the author…Report
Rafael Sabatini wrote Scaramouch.Report
Did he do the fandango?Report
It’s not clear to me whether Queen was referring to the book or to the stock commedia dell’arte character.Report
As far as I know, the only two Sabatini books that get read much nowadays are this one and Captain Blood (later made into a movie with Errol Flynn.)Report
Do I get points for owing and having read “Kingmaker”?Report
Huh, I had never heard of it. Is it worth reading?Report
14 is Scaramouch by Sabatini.Report
9 Ford The Good SoldierReport
Glyph, 8 points: 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 16, 18
Gabriel, 2 points: 10, 13
Kolohe, 2 points: 3, 6
Kazzy, 1 point: 17
Doctor Jay, 1 point: 19
Mark, 1 point: 1
Saul, 1 point: 11
KenB 1 point: 2
Aaron, 1 point: 14
Scarlet, 1 point: 9
Still open: 20. The exact answer is tough unless you happen to know it, because so many of his books are similar, but I would have thought the voice is unmistakable. It’s not exactly a series book, though the main character also appeared in his second-best-known series.Report
I can’t imagine continuing to read a book with a first sentence like that.Report
You’re right that the second sentence doesn’t quite live up to it.
One of the things which Petunia Pig had impressed on Yosemite Sam when he left for this holiday on the Riviera was that he must be sure to practice his French, and Petunia’s word was law.Report
2. Emma, Jane AustenReport
Now that I have time for this, I’m a little excite to play. But I might list my answers is groups…
ANSWERS I ABSOLUTELY KNOW ARE TRUE
1: Study In Scarlett, Doyle
3: Anna Karenia, Tolstoy
5. Old Man & Sea, Hemingway
6. 1984, Orwell
7. The Trial, Kafka
10. Ulysses, Joyce
12. Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury
14. Scaramouche, Sabatini
15. Tale of Two Cities, Dickens
16. Moby Dick, Melville
18. Confederacy of Dunces, Toole
ANSWERS I AM PRETTY SURE ARE RIGHT
8. Catcher In the Rye, Salinger
9. Good Soldier, FM Ford
11. Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
13. Lolita, Nabokov (though if I am right, the sentence has been edited?)
ANSWERS I AM TAKING AN EDUCATED GUESS WITH
4. Infinite Jest, DF Wallace
17. Peter & Wendy (Peter Pan), JM Barrie
19. Emma, Austen
20. I know the series (Jeeves & Wooster) and the author Woodhouse), but am unsure of the book, so I will guess My Man Jeeves?
ANSWERS I AM TOTALLY PULLING OUT OF MY ASS
2: Run Rabbit Run, Updike
And FWIW, this was SO much fun Mike. It reminds me of those awesome movie contests Pat used to do.Report
Very nicely done. 16/20 (plus one that’s half-right.)Report
Seriously, I would love to see you do another of these — or even just something similar.Report
Since pretty much all of them have been guessed, I’m just going to say that I’m proud of myself for having read most of these (I haven’t read 1, 4, 14, or 20, though I actually guessed who wrote 20… well, I guessed it was one of a couple people, and the actual author was one of those). The llist contains two books I love, as well: #3 and #9 (#5 might be a third).Report
There were about 25 years during which everything he wrote was wonderful, and #20 is a fine example, even if it’s not as well-known as the Wrrirf or Oynaqvatf books.Report
I’ve been reading that series (the well-known one) on my Kindle largely because you kept talking about the books. I’m enjoying them very much.Report
I had a guess about #20 – Waugh Sword of Honor, but Crouchback is in Italy before the war, not France.Report
I love the guess, but if it were Waugh, surely Marchmaine would have gotten it 🙂Report
Point.Report
I guess it shows what a philistine I am that seeing “Waugh” makes me think that someone got a football jerked away before they could kick it, or their kite got eaten by a tree.Report
I think you’d like a lot of his books. They’re often very funny, and you’d appreciate, if not totally agree with, their point of view. If you’re looking for something to read, I’d recommend Vile Bodies as a start. There’s also a pretty good film version called Bright Young Things, screenplay written by and directed by Stephen Fry.Report
1. A Study in Scarlet – Conan Doyle
3. Anna Karenina – Tolstoy
5. The Old Man and Sea – Hemingway
6. 1984 – Orwell
8. Catcher in the Rye – Salinger
13. Catch-22 – Heller
15. A Tale of Two Cities – Dickens
16. Moby Dick – Melville
17. Peter Pan – Barrie
19. Pride and Prejudice – AustenReport
Since it seems unlikely at this point that anyone is going to get #20, I’ll reveal the answer:
The Luck of the Bodkins, by (as Tod guessed) P. G. Wodehouse.Report