Memorable opening / closing lines of novels

Recidivist3

Recidivist3

Well-known member
I read quotes on another thread from ‘The Go Between

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

and ‘A Tale of Two Cities’

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’

A good subject for a thread? Time will tell

I’ll add ‘1984’ - opening line

‘It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen’

and ‘Gone with the Wind’ - closing line

‘After all, tomorrow is another day’
 
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
 
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes.”

George Orwell's Animal Farm
great book
 
Wizzerboy said:
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes.”

George Orwell's Animal Farm
great book
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The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
 
One of the great works of non-fiction begins thus:
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

The Social Contract - Rousseau
 
sirjames said:
Once upon a time
Grimm's Fairy Tales
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Do your homework. There is no German expression for 'Once upon a time', so none of Grimm's fairy tales use it. They may have used the expression einmal (once), as in "Es war einmal ein Mann und eine Frau."
If, on the other hand, you're having a dig at Rousseau's work...why?
 
catinstalbans said:
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Click to expand...

Definitely one of the best that Cat.

`Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school-friends who meet again as men and find themselves with less in common than they used to think.`

Name that book...
 
Here's another two incredibly popular works of fiction

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
and
"In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful"
 
spudgun said:
Definitely one of the best that Cat.

`Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school-friends who meet again as men and find themselves with less in common than they used to think.`

Name that book...
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‘Lost Horizon’

James Hilton, the author, also wrote ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’

All googled, of course, 😉 ..... though I do know the feeling described in the book.

Cat, why not just treat this thread as a bit of fun ?

‘Here is a small fact: You are going to die’ - ‘The Book Thief’

‘This is the story of what a Woman’s patience can endure, and what a Man’s resolution can achieve’ - ‘The Woman in White’
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Do your homework. There is no German expression for 'Once upon a time', so none of Grimm's fairy tales use it. They may have used the expression einmal (once), as in "Es war einmal ein Mann und eine Frau."
If, on the other hand, you're having a dig at Rousseau's work...why?
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Wow, that was brutally pedantic. I thought the opening line of The Stubborn Child was translated as once upon a time, my bad, back to my homework
 
sirjames said:
Wow, that was brutally pedantic. I thought the opening line of The Stubborn Child was translated as once upon a time, my bad, back to my homework
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Pedantic, no. Brutal - perhaps, because I thought you were deliberately going for Jean-Jacques. Of course, literary translations generally try to accommodate the cultural norms of the language being translated into, so it wouldn't surprise me if 'Once upon a time' was used. I will defer to you on that one.
 
spudgun said:
Definitely one of the best that Cat.

`Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school-friends who meet again as men and find themselves with less in common than they used to think.`

Name that book...
Click to expand...
Lost Horizon?
 
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice
 
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
 
It is a far far better thing I do, than I have ever done; It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens.

A very famous quote but perhaps not at the opening or ending of the novel.I remember seeing the film as a child and it made a very deep impression and I have never forgotten the above quote as Sydney Carton went to the guillotine.
 
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‘When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.’
The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham.
 
“The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.”

And it gets darker from there.
 
The two that spring to mind.....

“Debbie lived in Dallas.....”. 😉

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.....”
 
It begins: So we're in Sumeria, and it's the dawn of time. The world is a playground, and death does not exist. Men and Gods live together, free of worry.

It ends: And when you gaze past the bubbles, through the glass at the world beyond, your vision is distorted, twisted as if you're already hammered, suggesting perhaps that anything is possible through the glass. Cheers.🍻

Man walks into a pub by Pete Brown.
 
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. 👍

And a notably mention to The Martian. "I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked"
 
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents ... Paul Clifford , Edward Bulwer Lytton

The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy: he wis trembling. ... Trainspotting , Irvine Welsh
 
'As I walked out one Mid Summer Morning', Laurie Lee.
A sequel to 'Cider with Rosie'.
He tramps from Vigo in the North of Spain to the South Coast.
He is then trapped by the Spanish Civil War.
 
Beat me to it Bollie! My favourite comedy book.

So instead I shall offer - Noddy woke up, turned over to Big Ears and asked is it time you got your own place?
 
Uncle Quentin was a screaming homosexual who faked his own kidnapping in order to abandon his nymphomaniac wife, Aunt Fanny,so we went scrumping for apples and drank lashings of ginger beer all afternoon.
 
In the beginning there was curiosity about the birds, the bees and that tree.
Around The World In Many Spliffs by W. Fish.
 
I got the best ‘good hiding’ I’ve had since my schooldays at St Joseph’s College in Blackpool.

There can be no future for our club unless we march together, but not on to the pitch.
 
September 3rd, 1939. The last minutes of peace ticking away. Father and I were watching Mother digging our air-raid shelter.
“She’s a great little woman,” said Father. “And getting smaller all the time,” I added.

(Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall - Spike Milligan)
 
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