Reply
Thu 19 Dec, 2019 02:40 pm
Got a strange question.
In the year 1991 or 1992 I was asked by my English teacher a question on a school exam and I did not know the answer.
We had to read a book and he would ask us all kind of questions about the book.
I knew everything about this book, I start reading the first question on the exam and I had nó idea…
I do not know the details anymore.
But I believe the question was: what is the first word of the book?
And every chapter of that book would start with that same word, or something like that.
The answer to the question was one word, like "I" or "The" or something like that.
Does that ring a bell to anybody?
I have the 10 books of those years, but I cannot see it in the books?
So it must have been another book or another question.
It was about the beginning of the book or the beginning of each chapter.
These are the 10 books, but it might not even be them...
The question is, is there an English literature book in which éach chapter starts with the same word?
Does anybody know?
1991:
1. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
2. Lord of the flies - William Golding
3. The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
4. Cal - Bernard MacLaverty
5. The life and loves of a she-devil - Fay Weldon
1992:
1. The Catcher in the rye - J.D. Salinger
2. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
4.The Collector - John Fowles
5. A good man in Africa - William Boyd
Something in my mind tells me that it has to do with:
Lord of the flies or Cal or catcher in the rye….
Anybody any idea?
@NicoleB,
Is your English teacher still alive? Try reaching out to him or her and asking.
@NicoleB,
I'm sure there's a novel out there where every chapter starts with the same word, there's all sorts of different types. Take Gadsby, that's a novel written without using e, if someone is prepared to go to the effort of doing that I'm sure someone else can start each chapter with the same word.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_(novel)