Fiction Test

Mensa Word Expert Richard Lederer posted a great article in the September 2022 Mensa Bulletin, in which he gave a lot of examples of the first words in a novel that, by themselves indicate who the author was.

I don't think he would mind if I take his idea and work it into a test.

So, in the following 10 fiction opening excerpts see if you can discern the author and the work.

01.  "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream ..."

02.  "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

03.  "Call me Ishmael."

04.  "All children, except one, grow up."

05.  "Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies ..."

06.  "You don't know about me without you have read a book called 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ... '"

07.  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, ..."

08.  "It was Wang Lung's wedding day."

09. "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into a giant insect."

10. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents."  Grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

 

It's a shame that schoolchildren will no longer get to enjoy these great works of fiction.

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