Test your knowledge of some of the most celebrated works of fiction from the past century with our first lines quiz. Need some help? The answers are at the bottom of the page!
- "All children, except one, grow up…"
- "Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realised it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were."
- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…"
- "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium."
- "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
- "When I think of my wife, I always think of her head."
- "It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
- "It's hard being left behind."
- "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 like…and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
- "'Where's Papa going with that ax?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast."
- "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
- "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
- "Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra."
- "Sunday 1 January
9st 3 (but post-Christmas), alcohol units 14 (but effectively covers 2 days as 4 hours of party was on New Year’s Day), cigarettes 22, calories 5424."
Answers
1 Peter Pan by JM Barrie
2 Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
5 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What to read next
6 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
7 1984 by George Orwell
8 The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
9 The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger
10 Charlotte's Web by EB White
11 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
12 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
13 Room by Emma Donoghue
14 Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding














