Do You Know These Lines From Classic Books?

Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” utters these plaintive final lines of the novel: “Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” Published in 1951, the coming of age tale follows Caulfield as he rages against the “phoniness” of adults and sees his childish innocence fall away.

John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” published in 1939, reflects on the difficulties faced by migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. The book was controversial upon its release due to its sympathetic representation of workers’ struggles, and has at times been banned. However, this did not prevent Steinbeck from being awarded both a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize for the novel.

Bulwer-Lytton’s opening to his 1830 novel “Paul Clifford” has become so cliché that it is instantly recognizable, even if the novel itself has been largely forgotten. The opening was considered so risible, that in 1982 a literary competition named in Bulwer-Lytton’s honor was launched charging entrants to write “an atrocious opening sentence to the worst novel never written.”

Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” (1987) opens with the intriguing line, “124 was spiteful.” Readers are invited to read on to find out what, or who, “124” is. “Beloved” tells the story of a family of formerly enslaved people who are haunted by an evil spirit. The book has won numerous plaudits including the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published her coming-of-age story “Anne of Green Gables” in 1908. The book introduces unconventional Anne Shirley, whose whimsical ways and strong character immediately endeared her to audiences the world over.

Manderley was the beautiful Cornish house that enchanted the second Mrs de Winter in Daphne Du Maurier’s novel “Rebecca.” The house was actually based on the author’s own Cornish home, Menabilly, where she lived for 26 years. “Rebecca” was published in 1938 and was Du Maurier’s fifth and most successful book. It was adapted for the stage and screen numerous times, including by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940.

Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” opens with the March sisters grumbling about the prospect of a Christmas without any gifts. The story follows the tribulations of four sisters — Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy — as they grow into adulthood. Now a classic of American literature, it has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times and is one of the most beloved young adult novels of all time.

Despite the opening line’s claim to honesty, Kurt Vonnegut's science-fiction novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” is filled with fantastic scenarios, including a trip to an alien zoo. Published in 1969, it was an instant hit and spent 16 weeks on “The New York Times” bestseller list, marking a turning point in Vonnegut’s career.

The powerful tale of 14-year-old Celie is told through the letters the young Black woman writes to God as she navigates the challenges of racism, poverty, and coming of age in the rural American South. Adapted into both a movie and a musical, 1982’s “The Color Purple” won author Alice Walker the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first Black woman to receive the prestigious award.

Charlotte Brontë concludes her narrative of Jane Eyre’s life with this memorable line: “Reader, I married him.” The active framing of the line reveals Jane’s mastery over her own destiny, only deigning to marry the brooding Mr. Rochester once he has been metaphorically punished for his past mistakes. “Jane Eyre” was first published in 1847 and Jane has proved an enduring heroine.

Charles Dickens penned the classic “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1859. Though the first line of the novel’s opener is famous, not many people know the full sentence, which is 188 words long. It begins: "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..." and so on and so on.

Hamlet’s soliloquy, in which he considers life or death, weighing the injustice of his existence against a potentially worse fate, is one of Shakespeare’s most quoted lines. The Bard wrote the tragedy “Hamlet” sometime between 1599 and 1601. The story follows the prince of Denmark as he tries to get revenge on King Claudius for murdering his father, marrying his mother, and seizing the throne.

In George Orwell’s “1984” even time itself could be manipulated by the ominous Big Brother. This famous opening line signals to the reader that they are entering an unfamiliar world. In fact it is a totalitarian dystopia, where truth has been replaced by propaganda. Published in 1948, Orwell’s novel was so influential that many of his invented terms are still used to describe authoritarian regimes.

The first line of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice'' is one of the most famous in English literature: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The irony of the line soon becomes apparent as the reader dives into the complicated path of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet’s love story.

“Moby Dick” by Herman Melville is considered one of the greatest novels of all time, and its simple opening line, introducing our narrator, has become iconic. The book was first published in England in 1851 as “The Whale,” but was renamed for its American release. Melville undertook a great deal of research before penning his novel and was inspired in part by the true story of the whaling ship “Essex” that was sunk by a sperm whale in 1820.

The last line of “Gone with the Wind” is uttered by Scarlett O’Hara, who, after losing her husband Rhett, decides to return home to regroup and plan for the future. Written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936, the novel is an epic love story set during the American Civil War. It was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and adapted into a hugely popular Oscar-winning movie in 1939.

The melancholy final line of “The Great Gatsby” sums up the inability to escape the past. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel became an emblem of Jazz Age America, but the dazzling setting of the book often obscured its deeper, more cynical meaning. Fitzgerald himself once lamented, “Of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about."

The scene in which poor orphan Oliver Twist bravely asks for another bowl of gruel has become famous. The cruel workhouse beadle is outraged by the request and hits the boy on the head with his stick. With this line from his 1838 novel “Oliver Twist,” Charles Dickens lambasts the meager rations offered to unfortunate inmates of the workhouse, and the pompous, unfeeling actions of the workhouse management.

J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan; The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” started out as a stage play in 1904. The play was performed to great acclaim in both London and New York City. Barrie revised the script many times and adapted it into the novel “Peter and Wendy” in 1911. Peter Pan was cemented as a favorite in 1953 when Walt Disney created an animated version of the story.

Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” opens with a melancholic first line: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The story charts the doomed love affair between Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky, the opening line foreshadowing the dismal fate of Anna’s own marriage. The book was published in installments between 1875 and 1877 and is now considered a classic.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” begins a speech delivered by Juliet in William Shakespeare’s indelible tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.” These famous words appear in Act 2, Scene 2, in which Juliet delivers the lines from her window.