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Trivia

Famous
First Lines

Which books are these the first lines of?
1.'In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army.'
*Of Human Bondage (Somerset Maugham)
*Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
*A Passage to India (E. M. Forster)
8A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
2.'Today it seems to be providential that Fate should have chosen Braunau on the Inn as my birthplace.'
*Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler)
*Future Shock (Alvin Toffler)
*Steppenwolf (Hermann Hesse)
*All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque)
3.'On Friday, 12th June, I woke up at six o'clock and no wonder; it was my birthday.'
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling)
*Diary (Samuel Pepys)
*The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13? (Sue Townsend)
*The Diary of Anne Frank
4.'Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.'
*The Twits (Roald Dahl)
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J. K. Rowling)
*Matilda (Roald Dahl)
5.'When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.'
*The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
*The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
6.'Far out in the unchartered backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.'
*Dune (Frank Herbert)
*The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
*Out of the Silent Planet (C. S. Lewis)
*2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)
7.'To the red country and part of the grey country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.'
*The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
*The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
*Centennial (James Michener)
*The Call of the Wild (Jack London)
8.'For many years, my home has been in the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya, that vast stretch of semi-arid thornbrush, covering some hundred and twenty thousand square miles, which extends from Mount Kenya to the Abyssinian border.'
*Born Free (Joy Adamson)
*Gorillas in the Mist (Dian Fossey)
*Out of Africa (Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen)
*Roots (Alex Haley)
9.'Tom! No answer. Tom! No answer. What's gone with that boy, I wonder?'
*Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
*Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
*Tom Brown's School Days (Thomas Hughes)
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
10.'Call me Ishmael.'
*The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
*Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
*Cannery Row (John Steinbeck)
*Moby Dick (Herman Melville)

Answers

1. A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
A Study in Scarlet is the first book in which we meet the famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
2. Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler).
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was a political manifesto written while Hitler was serving a prison term in the Fortress of Landsberg am Lech.
3. The Diary of Anne Frank.
Anne received her diary for her 13th birthday. She began to record her thoughts and feelings in it as of 14th June, 1942. The last entry was 1st August, 1944. On 4th August, the German Security Police discovered the Secret Annexe and the occupants were arrested. Anne subsequently died in Bergen-Belsen in March, 1945.
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J. K. Rowling).
This is, of course, the opening sentence of the first Harry Potter book. The author, J. K. Rowling, lived on welfare for nearly a year while she wrote this book during 1996-7. By the year 2000 she became the highest-earning woman in England, netting about $30 million. Rowling named her book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and this is the title it is known by in most countries. However, the publishers in 4.America decided to change the name to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" because they thought that "sorcerer" would be more appealing to the American consumer and that "philosopher" could possibly give the wrong impression about the book's subject matter.
5. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett).
As well as 'The Secret Garden' and 'The Little Princess', Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote the famous 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'. Her son, Vivian, was the model for Little Lord Fauntleroy.
6.The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams).
As well as writing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (A Trilogy in Four Parts), Adams was also a script editor for Dr Who and a guitarist for Pink Floyd! He died of a heart attack last year (May 11, 2001).
7.The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck).
John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. According to the Nobel Prize Internet Archive, he won the prize 'for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.'
8.Born Free (Joy Adamson).
Born Free is the true story of how Joy and George Adamson raised Elsa, a lion cub, and eventually returned her to the wild. After their marriage broke down in 1971, Joy was murdered by a disgruntled employee (1980) and George was killed by animal poachers (1989).
9.Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain).
Mark Twain was the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Mark Twain is an old river term meaning 2 fathoms or 12 feet of water, indicating it is a safe depth for navigation. Twain was the first author to type a manuscript and also to double-space it for the convenience of his editor. He based his characters on real people. Tom Sawyer was a combination of several boys, including himself.
10.Moby Dick (Herman Melville).
Herman Melville based his novel Moby Dick on a true story. A Nantucket ship, the Essex, was whaling off the coast of South America in 1820 when it was rammed by a whale. He received his information from Owen Chase, the mate on the Essex who kept the ship's log.

Source: Funtrivia.com