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Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

verbaprima.com

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Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

#1

Post by plicerin »

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!

Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works
verbaprima.com

Re: Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

#4

Post by piltdownman »

For reference, a famous Irish coffee-table (read: bathroom) book in a similar vein:

https://www.abebooks.com/Said-Duchess-First-Lines-Gemma-OCon...

And from a cursory few refreshes I didn't see the obvious one come up:

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Orwell, 1984

Re: Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

#7

Post by 1-more »

semiversus wrote: post #2

Really cool idea! Add a possibility to send you tips for other books. Here is mine: "As GREGOR SAMSA awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

obligatory note that there's no great single translation for Ungezeifer. Vermin, pest, insect, arthropod, spider, bug, mouse, "animal unfit for sacrifice" all fit https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ungeziefer

Re: Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

#8

Post by diego_moita »

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."

Re: Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works

#9

Post by xnorswap »

Frustrating without a way to get to the list of works, because it's not clear when you've seen them all.

You start having to guess how many there are, based on how many you have seen and how many have repeated, and the distance between seeing ones you haven't yet seen before.

A problem made worse, the more quotes there are, as if you have N quotes, then you expect to see the one you see the most often approximately e.ln(N) times ( iirc, for large N ).

( Or put another way: given N items, you expect the gap between discovering the penultimate one and the last one to be N. )

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