Tag: literature Page 2 of 3

No021 MY Ulysses Book Icon poster

21. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. —James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) Part…

No020 MY David Copperfield Book Icon poster

20. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show….

No019 MY Tristram Shandy Book Icon poster

19. I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they…

No018 MY The Good Soldier Book Icon poster

18. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915) Part of my 100 Best First Lines from Novels project. First…

No017 MY Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Book Icon poster

17. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down…

No016 MY The Catcher in the Rye Book Icon poster

16. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was…

No014 MY If on a winter’s night a traveler Book Icon poster

14. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. —Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler (1979;…

No015 MY Murphy Book Icon poster

15. The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. —Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938) Part of my 100 Best First Lines from Novels project. First lines are…

No013 MY The Trial Book Icon poster

13. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. —Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Breon Mitchell) Part…

No012 MY Huckleberry Finn Book Icon poster

12. You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. —Mark Twain,…

No011 MY Miss Lonelyhearts Book Icon poster

11. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard. —Nathanael West, Miss…

No010 MY Invisible Man Book Icon poster

10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) Part of my 100 Best First Lines from Novels project. First lines are powerful. It’s the author’s…