Wednesday's Game: Famous first lines

[Carci]

I'll start with the one that came to my mind immediately.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

You tell us what book that is from and give another first line for the next person to identify.

[Mandy Muffin]

"Happy families are all alike; every an unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Hint: It involves trains and was also remade as a movie this past year. 

[Carci]

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Now one from a book most of us have read and discussed.

 

"Of course, an introduction. A beginning.  Where are my manners? I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will all know me well enough and soon enough."

[rapa]

THE BOOK THIEF   by Marcus Zusak 

Now, an oldie:

"Who is John Galt?"

 

[Joanne]

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

[Mandy Muffin]

"Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table."

Hint: The story includes a dog.

[officerripley]

Answ.:  The Hound of the Baskervilles?

Identify:  "By human standards it could not possibly have been artificial:  It was the size of a world."

[Mandy Muffin]

"Contact," by Carl Sagan

This is fun!

New book:

"Mother died today." 

Hint: Won the Nobel Prize and comes from Africa.  Original title is in French.

[Ioruach]

The Stranger by Albert Camus.

First line:  "It was a dark and stormy night....."  Whoops, scratch that and use this:

    "After dark the rain began to fall again, but he had already made up his mind to go and anyway it had been raining for weeks."

[Ioruach]

Oh, and in addition, The Stranger contains one of my very favorite phrases from any novel I have read:

“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe”

Basic Existentialism, I guess.

And by the way, I think my first line is pretty obscure, so I can say is is from a best selling book of about four or five years ago that featured dogs that was highly recommended by Oprah W.

[Ursula]

Lorouch, I like your quote, but I'm making a guess on your game quote based on your clue: could this possibly be Edgar Wrobleski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle?  I was one of the few Bookoholics who actually enjoyed reading this book.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. 

[Mandy Muffin]

"Back When We Were Grownups" Anne Tyler.

"On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor."  It's been made into a movie. 

[rapa]

TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy    (I confess that I haven't read it)

 

Here's one for the ladies:

 

"Sidda is a girl again in the hot heart of Louisiana, the bayou world of Catholic saints and voodoo queens."