Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?

[kestrelx]

Back in the 70's when TV was limited, they had excellent ghost stories by MR James shown on Christmas Eve or around that time, still very effective when shown a couple of years ago.

Here is first paragraph of one called "A Warning to the Curios."

"The place on the east coast which the reader is asked to consider is Scaburgh. It is not very different now from what I remember it to have been when I was a child. Marshes intersected by dykes to the south, recalling the early chapters of Great Expectations; flat fields to the north, merging into heath; heath, fir woods, and, above all, gorse, inland. A long sea-front and a street: behind that a spacious church of flint, with a broad, solid western tower and a peal of six bells. How well I remember their sound on a hot Sunday in August, as our party went slowly up the white, dusty slope of road towards them, for the church stands at the top of a short, steep incline. They rang with a flat clacking sort of sound on those hot days, but when the air was softer they were mellower too. The railway ran down to its little terminus farther along the same road. There was a gay white windmill just before you came to the station, and another down near the shingle at the south end the town, and yet others on higher ground to the north. There were cottages of bright red brick with slate roofs... but why do I encumber you with these commonplace details? The fact is that they come crowding to the point of the pencil when it begins to write of Seaburgh. I should like to be sure that I had allowed the right ones to get on to the paper. But I forgot. I have not quite done with the word-painting business yet."....

'Nathaniel Ager is my name and England is my nation,

Seaburgh is my dwelling-place and Christ is my Salvation,

When I am dead and in my Grave, and all my bones are rotton,

I hope the lord will think on me when I am quite forgotton.'


"

[kestrelx]

Read the whole short story - "A Warning to the Curios." here;

"A Warning to the Curious" by M. R. James | The Literary Gothic

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by susie123

Still got all my chemistry text books from uni! How sad is that - but a lot of the info will be out of date now so I doubt if anyone will want them.

I have kept my copy of Stryer -the biochemistry "bible" it was in the 1980's it will be way out of date now!
When I moved over to Italy in '87 I sold off lots of my books and records -needed the cash and to off-load some weight. I regret it now as I left behind some "old friends" which I've not read since, books like Brideshead Re-visited and I, Clavdivs come to mind, among others.

[mobertol]

Watched the film version of A S Byatt's Possession yesterday evening - a lovely treat even though I've sen it several times. The book is brilliant -though possibly one of the hardest i've ever read. It is a kind of literary mystery/love story set in the 1880's and 1980's -there is a lot of poetry woven into it as it follows the discovery of a hidden affair between two Victorian poets. The two modern academics who follow the trail also have their own relationship examined in parallel.
First lines:
"The book was thick and black and covered with dust. It's boards were bowed and creaking; it had been maltreated in it's own time. It was bandaged about and about with white tape, tied in a neat bow. The librarian handed it to Roland Michell, who was sitting waiting for it in the Reading Room of the London Library. It had been exhumed fom locked safe No.5 where it usually stood between Pranks of priapus and The Grecian Way of love. It was ten o'clock in the morning, one day in September 1986. Roland had the small single table he liked best, behind a pillar, with the clock over the fireplace nevertheless in full view. To his right was a high sunny window, through which you could see the high green leavesof St James's Square."

Highly recommend it -not an easy read though!

[susie123]

Originally Posted by mobertol

Watched the film version of A S Byatt's Possession yesterday evening - a lovely treat even though I've sen it several times. The book is brilliant -though possibly one of the hardest i've ever read. It is a kind of literary mystery/love story set in the 1880's and 1980's -there is a lot of poetry woven into it as it follows the discovery of a hidden affair between two Victorian poets. The two modern academics who follow the trail also have their own relationship examined in parallel.

Highly recommend it -not an easy read though!

Great book, loved it, didn't know there was a film. Have to look out for it.

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by susie123

Great book, loved it, didn't know there was a film. Have to look out for it.

It's very good and well cast too:

Jeremy Northam -plays Ash
Jennifer Ehle - Cristobel la Motte
Gwyn Paltrow - Maude Bailey
Aaron Eckhart - Roland Michell

Trevor Eve is also in it...

Worth buying the DVD!

[annesingleton]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Read the whole short story - "A Warning to the Curios." here;

"A Warning to the Curious" by M. R. James | The Literary Gothic

Years ago I bought the collected ghost stories of M.R.James from a jumble sale, the stories are all really beautifully written and very evocative of their time.

[Eric]

"There were eight watchers by the beacon on Pendle Hill in Lancashire."

[Restless]

I love the connection to the poem.

Originally Posted by Eric

Ah, "The Dark Tower".

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that purs'd and scor'd
Its edge, at one more victim gain'e thereby.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came: EBB's husband.

[kestrelx]

A Clockwork Orange.

"What's it going to be then,eh?"

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk plus mesto, and you may. O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like...

[mobertol]

Once upon a time....

The choice is yours!

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by annesingleton

Years ago I bought the collected ghost stories of M.R.James from a jumble sale, the stories are all really beautifully written and very evocative of their time.

Short Ghost Stories are excellent - remember the Monkies Paw? Not by MR James though. Do you remember the TV series of them shown at Xmas back in the 70's!

[Eric]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Short Ghost Stories are excellent - remember the Monkies Paw? Not by MR James though. Do you remember the TV series of them shown at Xmas back in the 70's!

Great story "When the gods wish to pusnish us, they answer our prayers." That's Wilde, eh. But I've also heard it somewhere ... I can't be bothered to Google; I try to use my memory sometimes (if you don't use it; you lose it) ... as "When the gods want to punish us, they grant our wishes."

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Eric

But I've also heard it somewhere ... I can't be bothered to Google; I try to use my memory sometimes (if you don't use it; you lose it) ...

This what you're looking for Eric ?

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.Euripides
Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by Eric

Great story "When the gods wish to pusnish us, they answer our prayers." That's Wilde, eh. But I've also heard it somewhere ... I can't be bothered to Google; I try to use my memory sometimes (if you don't use it; you lose it) ... as "When the gods want to punish us, they grant our wishes."

But there are no gods...

That's a bit like the saying - "Be careful what you wish for..." Does anyone know if there is a bit missing from that saying - if so post it.

However that saying by Wilde - is a bit Roman Catholic don't you think? Like nothing good can come to us in life and everything turns sour...

The Monkies Paw though was about a cursed paw that granted a wish at great cost...