Guess the opening lines...

[kinkytoes]

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 😊

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

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

Wind in the Willows! I got one!

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."

Yep ⭐️

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.

Lord of The Flies

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)

The Grand Sophy

Knew it before I was halfway through the first sentence!

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

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.

You might not know the book here (I wouldn't), but who's the author? One of my absolute favourites.

‘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 talk French.’

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.

Classic here: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g PG Wodehouse, could it be another?

Dead easy one

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

And who could forget
**
It is a truth universally acknowledged ...

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Classic here: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”

It is a far far better thing....

The moment after Lew Nolan wheeled his horse away and disappeared over the edge of the escarpment with Raglan's message tucked in his gauntlet, I knew I was for it. Raglan was still dithering away to himself, as usual, and I heard him cry: "No, Airey, stay a moment - send after him!"and Airey beckoned me from where I was trying to hide myself nonchalantly behind the other gallopers of the staff.

Currently reading this.

'Put me out with the bins,' he said, regularly. 'When I die, put me out with the bins. I'll be dead, so I won't know any different. you'll be crying your eyes out,' and he would laugh and I'd laugh too because we both knew that I wouldn't be crying my eyes out. I never cry.
When the time came, on Wednesday 29th November 2017, I followed his instructions. He was small and frail and eighty-two years old by then, so it was easy to get him into one large garden waste bag.

Rebecca
Pride and Prejudice

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:

🤣🤣🤣

These are great, I only knew The Wind in the Willows 🤣

This is from one of my favourite books:

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home".

Sunday 1st January 9st 3

Rebecca

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.