Open Sweepstake
Open Sweepstake
Member polls

Rewards
Walmart logo
Amazon logo
PayPal logo
Amazon gift card
Take surveys and collect rewards from the industry-leading e-commerce website, Amazon.com, Via "amazon gift cards". The more you take or create survey, larger the amazon gift card you earn.
Go to page

Not Quite So Famous Opening Lines from Famous Books

Published on 11/07/2025
By: JohnInNorthYork
21
1186
Literature
5
If asked to quote an opening phrase or line from a book, many people would respond, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." from Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. But there are many other works of literature whose opening lines are perhaps less well known. This is a non-quiz. I will quote the line but I'll leave it to your comments to discuss what its source was. I'll list the answers a day or so after the survey appears. Thanks to the Gutenberg Project for assisting me with this.
1. "My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons." Are you the third of your siblings in your family?

2. "In the middle of the path of my life, I found myself in a dark forest." Sounds like a good description of a mid-life crisis. What is you experience with mid-life crises?

3. "On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge." Have you ever had to sleep in a hot attic or overheated top story of a building in summer?

4. "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn." Does this sound like a lovely description of a spring day?

5. "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." Do you think your father gave you good advice in you early years?

COMMENTS
Member polls