Famous First Lines of Novels

Famous First Lines of Novels The first lines of novels set the tone for the story to come. And when the story becomes a classic, the first line can sometimes become as famous as the novel itself, as the quotes below demonstrate. First-Person Introductions Some of the greatest novelists set the stage by having their protagonists describe themselves in pithy but powerful sentences. Call me Ishmael. - Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851) I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted  Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man  (1952) You dont know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of  Tom  Sawyer; but  that aint no matter. -  Mark Twain,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn   (1885) Third-Person Descriptions Some novelists start by describing their protagonists in the third person, but they do it in such a telling way, that the story grips you and makes you want to read further to see what happens to the hero. He was an  old man  who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. -  Ernest Hemingway,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹The Old Man and the Sea  (1952) Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. -  Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude​ Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. -  Miguel de Cervantes,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Don Quixote When  Mr.  Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) Starting With It Some novels start out with such original wording, that you feel compelled to read on, though you remember that first line until you finish the book and long thereafter. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, ​1984 (1949) It was a dark and stormy night ... . - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, ​A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Unusual Settings And, some novelists open their works with brief, but memorable, descriptions of the setting for their stories. The sun shone, having no alternative. -  Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938), There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. - Alan Paton, ​Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. - ​William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

Humbug Definition

Humbug Definition Humbug was a word used the 19th century to mean a trick played upon unsuspecting people. The word lives on in the English language today thanks largely to two notable figures, Charles Dickens and Phineas T. Barnum. Dickens famously made â€Å"Bah, humbug!† the trademark phrase of an unforgettable character, Ebenezer Scrooge. And the great showman Barnum took delight in being known as the â€Å"Prince of Humbugs.† Barnum’s fondness for the word indicates an important characteristic of humbug. It isn’t just that a humbug is something false or deceptive, it is also, in its purest form, highly entertaining. The numerous hoaxes and exaggerations which Barnum exhibited during his long career were termed humbugs but calling them that indicated a sense of playfulness. Origin of Humbug as a Word The word humbug seems to have been coined sometime in the 1700s. Its roots are obscure, but it caught on as slang among students. The word began appearing in dictionaries, such as in the 1798 edition of A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue edited by Francis Grose: To Hum, or Humbug. To deceive, to impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. When Noah Webster published his landmark dictionary in 1828, humbug was again defined as an imposition. Humbug as Used by Barnum The popular use of the word in America was largely due to Phineas T. Barnum. Early in his career, when he exhibited obvious frauds such as Joice Heth, a woman said to be 161 years old, he was denounced for perpetrating humbugs. Barnum essentially adopted the term and defiantly chose to consider it a term of affection. He began to call some of his own attractions humbugs, and the public took it as good-natured kidding. It should be noted that Barnum despised people like con men or snake oil salesmen who actively cheated the public. He eventually wrote a book titled The Humbugs of the World which criticized them. But in his own usage of the term, a humbug was a playful hoax that was highly entertaining. And the public seemed to agree, returning time and again to view whatever humbug Barnum might be exhibiting. Humbug as Used by Dickens In the classic novella, ​A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the miserly character Ebenezer Scrooge uttered â€Å"Bah, humbug!† when reminded of Christmas. To Scrooge, the word meant a folly, something too silly for him to spend time on. In the course of the story, however, Scrooge receives visits from the ghosts of Christmas, learns the true meaning of the holiday, and ceases to regard celebrations of Christmas as humbug.