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In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. |
A River Runs Through It - Norman MacLean |
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We slept in what had once been a gymnasium. |
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood |
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On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel. |
Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerlad |
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My first impression was that the stranger's eyes were of an unusually light blue. |
Mr Norris Changes Trains - Christopher Isherwood |
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The first time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses. Then she stepped out to the edge of the diving board and looked foggily into the pool; it could have been drained, myopic Brenda would never have known it. |
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth |
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What did you make of the new couple? |
Couples - John Updike |
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She's looking at me. |
Shiloh - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor |
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In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. |
The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain |
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On a bright December morning long ago, to thinly clad children were kneeling upon the bank of a frozen canal in Holland. |
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates - Mary Maples Dodge |
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The oranges were more plentiful than usual that year. |
Clea - Lawrence Durrell |
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The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry. |
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy |
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The first Lord of the Admiralty was unpopular at Pin Mill. |
Secret Water - Arthur Ransome |
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I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began. |
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee |
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"The Signora had no business to do it," said Miss Bartlett, "no business at all. " |
A Room With A View - E.M.Forster |
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It was a cold grey day in late November. |
Jamaica Inn - Daphne DuMaurier |
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In the first part of Robinson Crusoe at page one hundred and twenty nine you will find it thus written... |
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins |
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The doctor woke up afraid.He had been dreaming of the old house in New Orleans. |
The Witching Hour - Anne Rice |
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My father has sent a telegram to the War Office. |
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend |
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Yes dear, there will be other days, other meetings, other kisses.there must be.Yes dear, we will go again to badger Hill. |
Not a first line! Alfred Wainwright, from a letter quoted by Hunter Davies in Wainwright - The biography, p211 |
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One evening of late summer, before the 19th century had reached one-third of its span, a young man andwoman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot. |
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy |
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A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. |
Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy |
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Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. |
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James |
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One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. |
O Pioneers! - Willa Cather |
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A week had passed since the funeral of my poor boy Harry, and one evening I was in my room walking up and down and thinking, when there was a ring at the outer door. |
Allan Quatermain - H. Rider Haggard |
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I wonder when in the world you're going to do something Rudolf. |
Prisoner on Zenda - Anthony Hope |
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"Winter came early that year." |
This particular query has come up several times and in fact has its
own history. The query was published in Reference Quarterly in the mid-80's.
See RQ 22:343; 23:394; 25:25 I don't believe an answer was ever published
in RQ.
The closest I have found is "Winter had come in early that year." from How Jerem Came Home by Paul Kaser, 1980. Note: Russell Banks recently claims to have penned the line as a voice over for a scene in the movie of his novel Affliction . |
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A fine evening at last with delightful and abundant birdsong. |
Diaries - Alan Clark |
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It was the arrival of the kings that caught us unawares. |
the first line of a poem by Christopher Pilling called "The Adoration of the Magi" |
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I was born in Bombay - once upon a time. |
Midnights Children - Salman Rushdie |
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The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. |
The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley |
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The nickname of the train was the Yellow Dog |
Delta Wedding - Eudora Welty |
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