Yet *Another* Quote Game [First line game]

Blackwing · Post by **Blackwing** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:46 am

Is it the Count of Monte Cristo?

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:37 am

In a different thread ravenwing989 wrote:My Top 10 Favorite Books: (as of RIGHT NOW)

(....)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
(...)

This looks like a distinct possibility!

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:41 pm

Blackwing wrote:Is it the Count of Monte Cristo?

Correct!! Good job, and your turn. Not to mention, a sherlock as well.

Blackwing · Post by **Blackwing** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:32 am

Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:33 am

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? (by Susanna Clarke)

Blackwing · Post by **Blackwing** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:11 am

Yup. That was fast.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:10 pm

Well, I was online when you posted it, and I read it only a few months ago, recognition was immediate.

New one:

(...) Our blinds were half-drawn, and XXX lay curled upon the sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the morning post. For myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no hardship. But the morning paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. He loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime. Appreciation of nature found no place among his many gifts, and his only change was when he turned his mind from the evil-doer of the town to track down his brother of the country.
Finding that XXX was too absorbed for conversation I had tossed aside the barren paper, and leaning back in my chair I fell into a brown study. Suddenly my companion's voice broke in upon my thoughts:
"You are right, YYY," said he. "It does seem a most preposterous way of settling a dispute."
"Most preposterous!" I exclaimed...

OK, some comments and a caveat.
- this is not a translation but the original (contrary to my two previous posts)
- this is not exactly the first line, but very close to the beginning, the distance is about the length of the excerpt itself
- there is a very good reason for which I had to begin exactly where I did, and not earlier
- of course I had to edit the names of XXX and YYY

CAVEAT:
- you only get a sherlock if you give the complete answer in the first try.
A false answer does not count, but if there is a correct but partial answer, the poster gets to post the next one, but won't get the sherlock even if the same poster later completes the answer (and all the more so if the complement is given by someone else)

Post by **Kvetch** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:10 pm

The answer is "The Adventure of the Resident Patient", in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. You were of course unable to give the first part of the quote because it is Watson meandering on about Holmes himself. I would also venture a guess that the very first paragraph was not in fact part of the version published in the Strand Magazine, and therefore doesn't properly constitute the opening lines.

[I must admit that I had to look the specific story up, so I suspect I won't get the Sherlock...]

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:21 am

You fell straight into the pitfall I had prepared!

You get the next quote but noone gets a sherlock as this is just the kind of "correct but incomplete" answer I was anticipating.

The reason not to give the sherlock is not because the original Strand Magazine version, I am not a purist. Though my entire pitfall does has to do with historical causes, I am only considering present-day versions, and not historical ones.
The reason you suggested for starting where I did is not the true one. Why did I not mention the preceding sentence, which was "It had been a close, rainy day in October", and not much of a hint? Still I could not have started there, only at "Our blinds were half-drawn..."
Just for fun (there won't be a sherlock for it) anyone wants to try and complete the answer, with the hint I just gave?
If noone does within a couple of days, I'll do it.

Post by **Kvetch** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:36 pm

How about this one:

...

XXXX: The library is cool and smalls like carpet cleaner. I sign the Visitor's Log: XXXX XXXXXX 11:15 10-26-91 Special Collections. I have never been in the Newberry Library before, and now that I've gotten past the dark, forboding entrance I am excited.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:01 am

Not the foggiest idea about Kvetch's quote, but concerning the "complete answer" to my previous one: the excerpt I gave also appears in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box". The first few lines of the two stories differ from each other, up to the sentence just before the place I started. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" it happens in August (more compatible with the stifling weather than October)

It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house across the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter. Our blinds were half-drawn, etc.

The explanation for the doublet is given, for instance, here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Advent ... Commentary
So to award the sherlock I wanted both "Resident Patien" and "Cardboard Box" in a single post; either one or the other would have got the next quote.

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:13 pm

Kvetch wrote:How about this one:

...

XXXX: The library is cool and smalls like carpet cleaner. I sign the Visitor's Log: XXXX XXXXXX 11:15 10-26-91 Special Collections. I have never been in the Newberry Library before, and now that I've gotten past the dark, forboding entrance I am excited.

Is this cold?

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:40 pm

I would say, not just cold, but frozen solid.
Why don't you post a new first line?

If you think you already read that, it is not a "dÃ©jÃ -vu" illusion, I just posted the very same thing to you, mutatis mutandis, in a different thread

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:53 pm

Alright here I go.

Ilium, New York, is divided into three parts.

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:49 pm

It's been almost a week, should I post hints?

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:59 am

please

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:23 am

This book's author recently died.

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:31 pm

I think it's Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut.

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:50 pm

Correct. Your turn.

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:58 pm

Alright

The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:30 am

2001 A Space Odyssey by A. C. Clarke?

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:25 pm

voralfred wrote:2001 A Space Odyssey by A. C. Clarke?

Absolutely correct!

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:10 pm

Il brilgue: les tÃ´ves lubricilleux
Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave, 
...

OK, an exercise in style: I expect you to recognize the original although I'm giving you the first two lines of a translation (not mine! by F. L. Warrin who, I suppose, is a professional translator)

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:22 pm

I know what it is, but I cheated!

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:27 pm

Anyway you (gpackin) are not allowed to answer for 5 days!

The Internet Book Database of Fiction

Yet Another Quote Game [First line game]