Thursday, July 09, 2009

[literature quiz] opening lines


Authors and titles, please, for ten points altogether:

1. It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him. Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice.

2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.


3. Amergo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had co cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her.


4. Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery.


5. Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end after he plundered ...

Answers

Joseph Heller, Catch-22; George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four; Mario Puzo, The Godfather; Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code; Homer, The Iliad

13 comments:

  1. 1. Catch-22. Can't remember the author's name though.

    2. George Orwell, 1984.

    3. Mario Puzo, The Godfather.

    4. Haven't a clue.

    5. As 4.

    (Dr. Google was not inconvenienced during the compilation of these answers)

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  2. You know to highlight the white part under the word 'Answer', don't you?

    Three's not bad.

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  3. Great posts here today James. I wish I had time to comment properly but it's a bit 'Summer crazy' here this week eg people staying and in need of 24/7 hostess.

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  4. I never saw a successful book of less merit that the Code. Am I still the only one of that opinion? The subject did not put me off at all, the writing did: stiff, simplistic, yet wandering. My excuse is I bought it at the airport and finished it on the plane.
    I missed on Illiad because I didn't read it, and Code because I did.
    I did not remember the line from Godfather, but knew what it was after 35 years because we will still recognize something worthy for what it is after we have forgotton the facts.

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  5. Well I got 2 and 4.

    I haven't read the other 3.

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  6. Alison - too kind. Enjoy the company.

    Xlbri - agreed - it was rubbish.

    HGF and Cherie - one can't read everything.

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  7. 1. Catch 22
    2. 1984
    3. The Godfather
    4. Haven't a clue - sounds pulp fiction-y
    5. The Iliad

    Howzat?

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  8. I only missed the 5th - but I'd'a got it in the morning...

    xlbrl
    "I never saw a successful book of less merit that the Code. Am I still the only one of that opinion? "
    Dunno - never read it [but saw awful fillum] , but I read the sequel for sure; beyond bad.

    'Sequel?'- 'Number Two's' more like it...

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  9. Glad to see you got some right and the Code is widely condemned.

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  10. Yay! I got 4!!!

    Oh come on, the code is a good page-turning yarn!

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  11. Well done but surprised you'd say that, Liz, given your outlook.

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