Novel Openers: First Sentences of 11,000 Fictional Works, Topically Arranged With Subject, Keyword, Author and Title Indexing [Hardcover]

Bruce L. Weaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995 | ISBN-10: 0786400501 | ISBN-13: 978-0786400508

Over 11,000 opening lines from English-language works of fiction are given in this reference work. Most are novels, though a number of novellas, novelettes and other related forms excepting short stories are included. Each entry includes the opening line, title of the work, author, and year published. Author and title, and subject indexes allow multiple means of access.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

To aid you in the difficult, dare one suggest pointless, task of recalling opening lines from novels comes a book that devotes more pages to its index than to its contents. An odd sort of Bartlett's, though strangely appealing, this source provides the opening lines of over 11,000 English-language literary works, exclusive of short stories. The entries are numbered, arranged in chronological order featuring the title, author, and date, and classified under one of over 300 categories. These range from "ability" ("Father Gunn knew that their housekeeper Mrs. Kennedy could have done it all much better than he would do it"?Maeve Binchy's The Copper Beech, 1992) to "teatime" ("It was a Sunday evening in October, and in common with many other young ladies of her class, Katharine Hilbery was pouring out tea"?Virginia Woolf's Night and Day, 1919) to "youth" ("How stupid the young are"?Joan Brady's Theory of War, 1993). The entries are referenced in a massive, 500-plus-page index covering subject, keyword key phrase, and author title. Novel Openers could be used in reader advisory programs or in research, and to wile away a few spare hours. At this price, however, it is recommended only for libraries that perceive a need.?Neal Wyatt, formerly with Mary Washington Coll. Lib., Fredericksburg, Va.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Guides to the first (and sometimes last) lines of poems are staples in most reference collections. The last few years have also seen the publication of several titles that index the first lines of works of prose: In the Beginning: Great Lines from Your Favorite Book (Chronicle, 1991); First Paragraphs: Inspired Openings for Readers and Writers (St. Martin's, 1992); and Great Beginnings: Opening Lines of Great Novels (HarperCollins, 1993). As interesting and browsable as these titles are, none offers the scope and breadth of coverage of Novel Openers. First Paragraphs is more a writer's handbook than reference tool: each opening paragraph is followed by reflections on the passage. In the Beginning and Great Beginnings may both claim hundreds of entries, but neither has a keyword index. Novel Openers, however, not only includes some 11,000 entries, but is quite thoroughly indexed. In addition to the requisite author-title index, there is an index by subject and keyword. These indexes comprise more than half the book. The entries are arranged under broad categories, such as Heat, Crying, and Questions. The categories reflect very literally the topic of the first sentence, not the subject of the book. For example, "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," from Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, is listed under Occupations. Only English-language works are represented. Classic works of fiction as well as contemporary creations are cited. Here one will find not only Pride and Prejudice but Prizzi's Honor and Prince of Tides. Carefully compiled and comprehensively indexed (even the years referred to in quoted lines are indexed), this will be a useful addition to any literature or reference collection.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786400501
• ISBN-13: 978-0786400508
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,157,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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