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Sat 16 May, 2015 04:15 am
I think there's a fairly classic English novel that starts with a remark to the effect that the condition of things seems settled forever. Anyone?
Thanks - Ken18
Anna Karenina, that most English of English novels.
@Tes yeux noirs,
Oops, of course, it's not an English novel.
Your question is tolerably vague. However, it did put me in mind of the opening paragraphs of A Tale of Two Cities:
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, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
Homework's a bitch, huh?
Your question is vague, it could be any number of books, although my instinct was to go with A Tale Of Two Cities just like the venerable Setanta.
This is the opening of The Hobbit, everything is pretty settled here too.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coatsthe hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hillThe Hill, as all the people for many miles round called itand many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over
his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him.
@Ragman,
For some reason I thought of the line "It was a dark and stormy night", but I think thats a contest now.
@glitterbag,
You and I seem to have the same meddlesome mind, gb.
@neologist,
It tends to wander hither and yon.
Thats a great name for a Bulldog Drummond like character. Guy Noir, Private Eye
@glitterbag,
Guy Noir, is a current featured character on NPR's
A Prairie Home Companion (Garrison Keillor)...taken after the olden days radio detective shows.
"Guy Noir is a fictional private detective regularly featured on the public radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Voiced by Garrison Keillor, the character parodies the conventions of the pulp fiction novel and the film noir genre. Guy Noir works on the twelfth floor of the Acme Building in a city that "knows how to keep its secrets", St. Paul, Minnesota."
@Ragman,
OH, where all the women are strong and all the men are beautiful? That Garrison Keillor?
@glitterbag,
Yup, right you ARE!
Brought to you by Powder Milk Biscuits. Heavens, they're tasty and expeditious!
@Ragman,
When we first got married, my mother-in-law and husbands Aunt came up to visit from North Carolina. They were completely frustrated trying to make biscuits in my kitchen, the biscuits didn't rise in the oven and two elderly women were pissed. Turns out it was because i only had flour not self rising flour. Self rising flour is really more expeditious.
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