Page 14 | Guess the opening lines...

kinkytoes · 2026-05-14T14:02:19+00:00

Hi all, hope it's ok to start this here. Thought it might be fun and stretch the old grey matter a bit. I'll attach a shot of some opening lines and whoever guesses correctly post their own? We could all just post pics but then we might lose track. I don't mind. Let me know what you think (of the idea, and the opening lines here - hopefully started off with an easyish one but let me know if any clues are needed!) If it's being done elsewhere please someone direct me 😊

TonTonMacoute · 14/05/2026 20:33

NetballHoop · 14/05/2026 20:17

Pardon my French but it is better in the original. My teenaged angst loved this. Even better when listening to The Cure.

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

L'Etranger?

WiggyClawsThe2nd · 14/05/2026 20:33

shellyleppard · 14/05/2026 17:07

Sorry I haven't been able to answer any of the above apart from the wind in the willows. I have two if thats okay??
My first is " the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed".
My second is:
Prologue
20 December 1837
Liaten. Three miles deep in the forest just below Arnotts ridge, and you're in silence so dense it's like you're wading through it. There's no birdsong past dawn and especially not now, with the chill air so thick with moisture that it stills those few leaves clinging ganely to the branches. Among the oak and hickory nothing stirs:

The gunslinger!

fantam · 14/05/2026 20:32

NetballHoop · 14/05/2026 20:17

Pardon my French but it is better in the original. My teenaged angst loved this. Even better when listening to The Cure.

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

L'Etranger, Camus

Thelessdeceived · 14/05/2026 20:31

NetballHoop · 14/05/2026 20:17

Pardon my French but it is better in the original. My teenaged angst loved this. Even better when listening to The Cure.

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

L’Etranger?

HelenaWilson · 14/05/2026 20:31

Is that Strong Poison?

Yep.

fantam · 14/05/2026 20:30

The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:29

Is that Strong Poison?

HelenaWilson · 14/05/2026 20:24

There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.

The judge was an old man; so old, he seemed to have outlived time and change and death. His parrot-face and parrot-voice were dry, like his old, heavily-veined hands. His scarlet robe clashed harshly with the crimson of the roses. He had sat for three days in the stuffy court, but he showed no sign of fatigue.

He did not look at the prisoner as he gathered his notes into a neat sheaf and turned to address the jury, but the prisoner looked at him. Her eyes, like dark smudges under the heavy square brows, seemed equally without fear and without hope. They waited.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:20

ShelfObsessed · 14/05/2026 20:17

Persuasion.

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Yes, my favourite Jane Austen novel.

ShelfObsessed · 14/05/2026 20:17

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:15

Yes!

^Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who,
for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage;
there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a
distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and
respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents;
there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs
changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over
the almost endless creations of the last century; and there,
if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history
with an interest which never failed.^

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Persuasion.

NetballHoop · 14/05/2026 20:17

Pardon my French but it is better in the original. My teenaged angst loved this. Even better when listening to The Cure.

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:15

EveryKneeShallBow · 14/05/2026 20:09

A Christmas Carol!

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Yes!

^Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who,
for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage;
there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a
distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and
respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents;
there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs
changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over
the almost endless creations of the last century; and there,
if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history
with an interest which never failed.^

EveryKneeShallBow · 14/05/2026 20:14

A book I often see mentioned on here:

One of the very first bullets comes in through the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing. He doesn’t immediately understand that it’s a bullet at all, and it’s only luck that it doesn’t strike him between the eyes.

EveryKneeShallBow · 14/05/2026 20:09

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:08

Yup.

What about this one?

Marley was dead: to begin with.

A Christmas Carol!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 20:08

Yup.

What about this one?

Marley was dead: to begin with.

Cismyfatarse · 14/05/2026 20:05

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 17:02

Here's another one:

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. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.

The Big Sleep.

Original poster

kinkytoes · 14/05/2026 19:58

backslashruby · 14/05/2026 19:54

1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Wuthering Heights ❤️

OP posts:

backslashruby · 14/05/2026 19:57

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 19:56

Wuthering Heights?

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Correct. Gold star for Gasp0de.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 19:56

backslashruby · 14/05/2026 19:54

1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Wuthering Heights?

backslashruby · 14/05/2026 19:54

1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 19:53

HelenaWilson · 14/05/2026 19:49

Mrs Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September - a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Spot on.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 19:52

pollyhemlock · 14/05/2026 19:51

Heart of Darkness?

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Yes, that's it!

pollyhemlock · 14/05/2026 19:51

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/05/2026 19:44

No, a novella very much concerned with another river. The one in the quote is the Thames.

Here's yet another one:

Mrs Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September - a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours.

Edited

Heart of Darkness?

CrossPurposes · 14/05/2026 19:50

LeoniedeWesseldorf · 14/05/2026 19:37

Life After Life?

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Got it.

HelenaWilson · 14/05/2026 19:49

Mrs Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September - a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o’clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd