Guess the opening lines...

There was a man and he had eight sons. Apart from that, he was nothing more than a comma on the page of History. It's sad, but that's all you can say about some people.

^The truth is, if old Major Dover hadn’t dropped dead at Taunton races Jim would never have come to Thursgood’s at all.^

The Grand Sophy

Knew it before I was halfway through the first sentence!

The butler, recognising her ladyship's only surviving brother at a glance, as he afterwards informed his less percipient subordinates, favoured Sir Horace with a low bow, and took it upon himself to say that my lady, although not at home to less nearly-connected persons, would be happy to see him. Sir Horace, unimpressed by this condescension, handed his caped-greatcoat to one footman, his hat and cane to the other, tossed his gloves on to the marble-topped table, and said he had no doubt of that, and how was Dassett keeping these days? The butler, torn between gratification at having his name remembered and disaproval of Sir Horace's free and easy ways, said he was as well as could be expected, and happy (if he might venture to say so) to see Sir Horace looking not a day older than when he had last had the pleasure of announcing him to her ladyship. He then led the way, in a very stately manner, up the imposing stairway to the Blue Saloon, where Lady Ombersley was dozing gently on a sofa by the fire, a Paisley shawl spread over her feet, and her cap decidedly askew.

(I love the way this tells you so much without actually telling you)

Lord of The Flies

This is quite an easy one.

The boy with the fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and the broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.

Yep ⭐️

Someone beat me to A Town Called Alice :)
I've been looking for a book today on the shelves that ds wants to read. This is the first paragraph:
"Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights."

Wind in the Willows! I got one!

The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home

The other one quoted with The 39 Steps is A Town Like Alice (Neville Shute).

Another go at attaching a picture

And Then There Were None.

I was thinking Agatha Christie, but it's a good while since I read that one.

Ooh! Brilliant idea for a thread, even though I don’t seem to know any of them!

mines attached but might need to wait for verification.

Not sure that worked unfortunately.

And Then There Were None.

Great game! I will try to think of some now.

Ooh, I should know that but can't think for the moment where it's from.

I've another:

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.

magimedi CrossPurposes.

Yes that is The Thirty Nine Steps.

This is a great idea.
I’m commenting so I post something soon,

I'm pretty sure the first one is The Thirty Nine Steps.

Have got to go out so haven't time to do one, but it's a great game.

@HelenaWilson The first one is The 39 Steps - John Buchan. That's the hero, Richard Hannay.

Here's two. Both are mentioned quite often on MN. Not easy to find a book where the character's name isn't mentioned in the first paragraph!

I returned from the City about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick. I couldn’t get enough exercise, and the amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun.

@@@@@

James Macfadden died in March 1905 when he was forty-seven years old; he was riding in the Driffield Point to Point.

He left the bulk of his money to his son Douglas. The Macfaddens and the Dalhousies at that time lived in Perth, and Douglas was a school friend of Jock Dalhousie who was a young man then, and had gone to London to become junior partner in a firm of solicitors in Chancery Lane, Owen, Dalhousie, and Peters. I am now the senior partner, and Owen and Dalhousie and Peters have been dead for many years, but I never changed the name of the firm.