A Literary Quiz To Help Pass the Time 'Til Season 3
Can you match these first lines with titles of their famous literary sources? I will post the answers at a later date. One, by the way, has a link to Mad Men. Have fun!
1. "Call me Ishmael."
2. "It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
3. "To anyone who has ever been owned by a cat, it will come as no surprise that there are all sorts of things about your cat you will never, as long as you live, forget."
4. "Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the big woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs."
5. "Am I to become profligate as if I were a blonde?"
6. "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."
7. "The gales tore at him, and he felt its bite deep within, and he knew that if they did not make landfall in three days, they would all be dead."
8. "Claudia knew she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away."
9. "What dire offense from an am'rous cause springs, what mightly contests rise from trivial things."
10. "The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home."
11. "It was not a dark and stormy night."
12. "I was an only child -- and so I became an only man."
13. "The courtship and remarriage of an old widower is always made more difficult when middle-aged children are involved -- especially when there are unmarried daughters."
14. "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."
15. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
16. "Who is John Galt?"
17. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth."
18. "At supper that night, as many times before, his father said, 'Well, s'pose we go to the picture show.'"
19. "Life is difficult."
20. "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
21. "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."
22. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
23. "When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen."
24. "High upon the long hill they called the Saddle Back, behind the ranch and the county road, the boy sat his horse, facing east, his eyes dazzled by the rising sun."
25. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
26. "In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster."
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z.....
How very clever! I won't even tell you how many I don't know. And I thought I was "literate"! (The shallow girlfriend in Auntie Mame).
How did you do it? Did you just pick books off the shelf at random? Have you set a date when the answers will be revealed?
Here's the opening line from my favorite book of all time:
"The small boys came early to the hanging."
Thanks for a wonderful thread.
I forgot to select the Mad Men tie-in. I believe it is #16.
.....(Love this Shakespeare - Ariels's song from The Tempest)
Full fathom five.....thy Father lies.....
Of his bones are "coral" made....
Those are the pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade.....
But doth suffers a Sea-change.....
....."Call me.... Ishmael.....
.....#3....Erma Bombeck??
Well, I got about 5, I think. ha
Neat topic, z!
I'm unsure...are we supposed to post our matches?
I sucked at this, but I'll put down the ones I think I know......
1. Moby Dick
4. Little House on the Prairie
10. Wind in the Willows
14. Little Women
15. Rebecca
16. The Fountainhead
20. To Kill A Mockingbird
22. Pride and Prejudice
26. How Green Was My Valley
I hope you're going to give us the answers? I'm pretty sure half the ones I think I know are probably wrong.
Yes, I will be posting the answers in a couple days. No Erma Bombeck, and #16 is not Mad Men related, to my knowledge, anyway.
Jamm54, of the ones you listed, only 3 are incorrect.
I'll give it a try:
1. Moby Dick
2. 1984
4. Little House on the Prairie
10. Wind in the Willows
15. Rebecca
16. Atlas Shrugged (MM connection - Bert recommends it.)
17. The Bible
20. To Kill A Mockingbird
Jamm and I seem to agree on several of them.
Wow, Rozsie, you are good, and you are right about #16, so that makes two Mad Men links, as there is one other on the list.
Love it! Challenging!
1. Moby Dick
9. The Tempest?
14. Little Women
15. Rebecca
17. Bible, Book of Genesis
20. To Kill a Mocking bird
22. Anna Karenina?
23. The Secret Garden
Here's one for you: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
flowerpower: Great Expectations.
1. Moby Dick, 2. 1984, 3. Cat Tales, 4. Little House in the Big Woods, 5. Meditations in an Emergency, 6. Capture the Castle, 7. Shogun, 8. The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, 9. The Rape, 10. Wind in the Willows, 11. Of Course, Of Course, Of Coarse, 12. Tenth Commander, 13. A Summons to Memphis, 14. Little Women, 15. Rebecca, 16. Atlas Shrugged, 17. The Holy Bible, 18. A Death in the Family, 19. The Road Less Traveled, 20. To Kill a Mockingbird, 21. The Outsiders, 22. The Secret Garden, 23. My Friend Flicka, 24. Harry Potter and the Socerers Stone, 25. Ivanhoe
Do I win anything? lol
Never challenge a reader with too much time on her hands!
Just to share....
There is an interesting monument in a New York library I would love to visit whenever I am again on the east coast....
http://www.cphlibrary.org/about/obelisk.shtml
Ooooh, Greytone, I love it. Much cooler than the list I have - a friend gave me my much abbreviated version. I am going to print it out and see how many of the new ones I can figure out. Thanks so much.
You did great. #3 is actually "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" by Cleveland Amory; #9's full title is "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope; #11 is "Celery Stalks At Midnight" by James Howe; #12 is "Tenth Commandment" by Lawrence Sanders; and you left out "Pride and Prejudice" which was actually #22.
You have won a copy of Atlantic Monthly Magazine autographed by Ken Cosgrove and featuring his short story "Tapping a Maple on a Cold Vermont Morning". Enjoy!
Had you gotten them all correct, you would have won a brand new Relaxacisor or a lovely chip and dip set, your choice. Anyone who missed all 26 gets Kitty's recipe for Pineapple and Pinenuts Pie as a consolation prize.
I'll go ahead and post the few I got:
4. The Little House In The Woods (from the Little House series)
7. Moby Dick
10. The Wind in the Willows
14. Little Women
15. Rebecca
17. The Bible
20. To Kill A Mockingbird
flower: I guess A Tale Of Two Cities on your quoted first line
I can't believe I didn't get "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton...an Oklahoma teacher/author...I'm so mortified....
I love the movie...never bothered to read the book!
lol
grey, that obelisk is something else...it looks like it has about every book ever published somewhere on it!
Thanks for the link!
Mine are 1 MOBY DICK, 4 Little House in the big Woods,14 Little Women, 15 Rebecca, 16 Atlas Shrugged, 20 To Kill a Mocking Bird, 22 Pride & Preduice, 23 The Secret Garden, 25 Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.
Damn it, z...I really reeeeaaaaalllly want that chip and dip!
SCFan, right! "Tale of Two Cities". Jam54, close but no cigar.
I thought I was well read, but back to the library I go.
1. Moby Dick.
8. The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. blah-blah Frankenweiler.
14. Little Women
15. Rebecca
17. Genesis, first book of Old Testatment.
20. To Kill a Mockingbird.
22. Pride and Prejudice.
23. The Secret Garden.
I think #5 was mentioned by one of the Mad Men characters, but I don't remember who it was.
So did we guess them all?
Yeah, z...who gets the chip and dip??
(it won't keep running out of batteries like that darn Relaxacisor)
Okay, I did a little research about #5 - I knew it rang a bell. It's from "Meditations in an Emergency."
Zerelda, where's my high five?
clever zerelda!
#6 is actually "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith.
a truly lovely, if not magical, story.
Smith also wrote "101 Dalmations"
NEAT IDEA !