Only Book Experts Can Match 17/20 Of These Famous First Sentences To Their Classic Novels

Books·Posted 1 minute ago

If You Can Identify 76% Of These Classic Novels From Their First Sentence, You Clearly Got Through Your Required Reading List In SchoolTime to put your “definitely didn’t use SparkNotes” classic lit knowledge to the test.

If you’ve read literally anything I’ve posted before, this won’t be a shock: I’m a huge bookworm. I read like the world’s ending and have somehow converted half my community into fellow book nerds. My Indigo Plus (shoutout to Canadians) pays for itself by mid-January, and Goodreads is one of my most-used apps.

And yes, while I fully support audiobooks — because sometimes a bitch needs to make dinner and power through a slow classic you feel morally obligated to read — I still can’t get on board with e-readers. I either want the dramatic performance in my ears, or I need that paper-smell-in-the-face experience. No in-between.

Whether you’re word-obsessed like me or barely made it through this intro, it’s time to test your classic lit knowledge. Let’s start on page one, with the very first sentence…

Here’s a fun fact: Jane Austen published her novels anonymously, credited only as “A Lady.” Even her own family didn’t know she wrote Pride and Prejudice for a while. Pretty dope, honestly. I dream of anonymously dropping a bestseller, casually buying a house, and letting my family spiral into “Did you win the lottery?” theories. Not that Jane could’ve done that — patriarchy and all — but secret fame? Kind of rock ’n’ roll.

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