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Posted by plicerin 7 hours ago

Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works(www.verbaprima.com)
This came from an idea that had been knocking around in my head for several years. I had been collecting opening lines of famous works and thought it would be cool to see one everyday as I opened the browser. I tried different styles but landed on the simple background with the text, let the words speak for themselves. Over time i've added more quotes I believe now there are close to 60, so hopefully you can refresh a few times and get a fresh one every time. I hope you guys like it, enjoy!
129 points | 74 commentspage 3
sizzzzlerz 3 hours ago|
"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing"

A River Runs Through It

Norman Maclean

lkm0 6 hours ago||
I've always wanted to do this! I've scraped Gutenberg and tried some clever ways to get the first line, but I always got so much noise. Perhaps it's a good time to try again!
reader9274 4 hours ago||
"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know." - The Stranger, Camus
gniv 6 hours ago||
This is called incipit, right? In both English and French afaik.
seagram 6 hours ago||
"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." > Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez
zeroonetwothree 7 hours ago||
It would be fun if you had to guess what book it’s from
diego_moita 7 hours ago||
After trying a lot, I only saw lines from books written originally in English.

Therefore, I assume I'll not see my favorite:

> Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.

My translation:

"Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

atulatul 6 hours ago||
>I assume I'll not see my favorite

Your favorite was the first I saw. Just FYI.

fmobus 4 hours ago|||
It's a fucking banger of an opening line.
esafak 7 hours ago||
Nevertheless, García Márquez preferred Rabassa's English translation to his original!

There's an okay Netflix mini series of it, FYI.

alvatar 6 hours ago||
English literature heavily overrepresented
bookofjoe 6 hours ago||
Classic HN
temilson 5 hours ago||
Love the aesthetics ... the fonts ... sizes ... colors ... nicely done!
locusofself 6 hours ago|
I tried to press space, arrow keys, enter, tab, etc to get to next quote. None of those worked
bookofjoe 6 hours ago|
Click on "NEXT CHAPTER" in the upper right hand corner
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