Monday, January 26, 2009

First Line of a Favorite Novel

To complement the post below--my favorite first line (though of a non-favorite novel)-- here's the unremarkable first line of one of my favorite novels:

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."

Recognize it?
(Upon reflection, I realize it is the perfect opener, though it doesn't stand well on its own. The whole first scene should be illustrated by Edward Gorey. Is that a clue?)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to guess J.E.?

Is that the first line of the musical too? You know, the one that has the song "I'm small, I'm plain, I'm...(I forgot)..., and I'm poor".

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo said...

Jane Eyre??

Heres mine:

'My dear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, 'The Laurels,' Brickfield Terrace, Holloway -- a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour.'

momo said...

It sounds like the set-up for The Cat in The Hat.

Fresca said...

Yes, Jane Eyre, which Bink and I began to turn into a musical once upon a time, as a joke. Years later, someone actually did it for real..

MANFRED: "Mustard-and-cress and radishes not come up yet."
I had never ever heard of the Diary of a Nobody--I had to google your first line. I found it posted as a blog--
www.nobody.bluebones.net
how perfect!--then spent quite a while reading and laughing.

MOMO: Hey, you're right!
I looked it up:
"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play."
He obviously stole it from Charlotte Bronte!

I wonder if one could make a case that the "Cat in the Hat" is a variation on "Jane Eyre"...? Jane Eyre Down the Rabbit Hole?
Oh my...

Anonymous said...

About Edward Gorey: I'd never heard of him until I picked up The Eclectic Abecedarium in a little shop this December as a Christmas gift to my sister. Come Christmas, it turned out that she'd bought another Gorey book for me, The Ghastlycrumb Tinies. A funny coincidence!

Fresca said...

Oh, Annika--have you seen the Edward Gorey-esque version of "The Trouble with Tribbles"??? I'll add the link to the post above--or click on "Edward Gorey" on my index to the right, if you haven't seen it.