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Original poster

What is your favourite line of literature?

139 replies

SkaterGrrrrl · 26/03/2014 15:30

I love the opening line of Rebecca, it gives me the shivers.

Also love this line, which the Literary Book Company have put on mugs, tea towels and so forth:

"'She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." - Louisa May Alcott.

OP posts:
QueenAnneofAustria · 29/03/2014 23:06

Oh what a lovely thread. Darcy, 'in vain I have tried' and Wentworths, 'you pierce my soul' spring instantly to mind.

There are so so many. Off to peruse.

seasalt · 29/03/2014 23:06

"I cannot bear to think that he is alive in the world and thinking ill of me." from P&P

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 23:03

Have seen the mad old version but so long ago that I barely remember it.

My favourite JA adaptation is the Kate Beckinsale, 'Emma' one.

NuggetofPurestGreen · 29/03/2014 23:02

I just assumed I would hate it so didn't watch it. I just got tired of Austen adaptations which turn them into romcoms more or less and this looked like a likely candidate!! Grin

Have you ever seen the mad old version with Greer Garson in it???

LavenderGreen14 · 29/03/2014 23:01

"And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be -- and whenever I look up there will be you." from Far From the Madding Crowd.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 23:01

The Becket line about, 'We give birth astride the grave' excellent too - though v depressing!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 23:00

Yes, Austen says it - she goes on to say something along the lines of that despite him being bewitched, he's still safe from her because of her inferior connections, so he's in no danger. Grin

ithaka · 29/03/2014 22:59

I love me some Beckett:

"you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on"

"the freedom of a slave to crawl east on the deck of a boat travelling west"

Matthew Arnold's "unplumbed, salt, estranging sea" has always come to me whenever I am near the sea.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 22:58

The film is good. Everybody on here hates it, but I like it. Matthew M is a much better Darcy than Colin Firth!

NuggetofPurestGreen · 29/03/2014 22:55

It does say he is bewitched by her at some point in the book but it's the narrator - I don't think he'd use the words, think he's too formal. But I haven't actually seen the 2005 film so maybe it works for the character in that...

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 22:49

I really like both of them, and don't find "You have bewitched me" unbelievable - Darcy has been captivated by her for so long at the point of the proposal. When he openly admires her "fine eyes" to that bitch Miss Bingley, he's clearly so smitten that he can't stop himself! And I love all that wandering around and bumping into her on her favourite walks stuff too! :)

MrsRuffdiamond · 29/03/2014 22:48

There were some times, ...... at night and the bus almost empty, when you could sit in the dark with the rise and fall of the land under you, and feel that you had a time out of life, a cool private respite.

From A Hall of Mirrors by Robert Stone

tak1ngchances · 29/03/2014 22:45

From Othello:

Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well.
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme.

NuggetofPurestGreen · 29/03/2014 22:37

I much prefer what he really says. It's so stilted! And he says 'admire' before he says love. Grin Whereas the other is too romantic and passionate.

herladyship · 29/03/2014 22:33

So many Terry Pratchett lines to choose from, but I particularly like

'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.'

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 22:27

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” What he really says. But you have bewitched me is too good to ignore. :)

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/03/2014 22:25

No I know, but he SHOULD have done. :)

NuggetofPurestGreen · 29/03/2014 21:37

Remus I love the first line of The Gunslinger too, 'The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed'. Last line great too.

However 'you have bewitched me body and soul' is not in literature, Darcy would never say that! Wink

AntiDistinctlyMinty · 29/03/2014 13:53

The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise. - J.R.R Tolkien.

blueemerald · 29/03/2014 13:45

Awake, arise or be forever fallen

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

Heaven is for thee too high
To know what passes there; be lowly wise.
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition, or degree,
Contented that thus far hath been revealed.

  • Paradise Lost. I'm not religious but it is just the most fabulous text.
magimedi · 29/03/2014 13:41

The preface to Howards End:

"Only connect".

If everyone followed that life would be so much easier.

PetiteRaleuse · 29/03/2014 13:32

The Little Prince is so full of wisdom it's hard to pick out one quote, but I do like that one.

First and last lines of Rebecca also brilliant. I love the way Daphne du Maurier wrote.

myrtleWilson · 29/03/2014 13:32

The Gatsby one I meant!

myrtleWilson · 29/03/2014 13:32

I was going to say that line too drank

DrankSangriaInThePark · 29/03/2014 13:28

"and you will be happy to have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And from time to time you will open your window just for the pleasure of it...And your friends will be astonished to see you laughing while staring at the sky. And you will say to them, yes, stars always make me laugh"

The Little Prince.

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