hey Patrick, seems as if Sin & k/c got lost somewhere around Xmas and didn't make it to New Year.!?

Still, we carry on.....

Yours is from A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and it was as a young man I read it, not recalling it too well.

Something very contemporary, even if the author is getting on...

"My name is Bruno Salvador. My friends call me Salvo, so do my enemies. Contrary to what anybody may tell you, I am a citizen in good standing of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and by profession a top interpreter of Swahili and the lesser known but widely spoken languages of the Eastern Congo, formerly under Belgian rule, hence my mastery of French, a further arrow in my professional quiver."

If we're the only two then we're in toruble. I have no idea what this is from.

quote:

Originally posted by PaddyG:
If I have no idea what this is from, then we're in trouble.

I fixed your statement

Very clever major. very clever.

quote:

Originally posted by MajorNougat:

quote:

Originally posted by PaddyG:
If I have no idea what this is from, then we're in trouble.

I fixed your statement

You flatter me.

a leg up. The author is British and many of his novels have been filmed.

Shakespeare?

Oh, I guess he didn't write novels.

He is often labelled as a 'spy' writer.

Works under a pseudonym and this novel was published 2006.

You must know some other Brits, ey PG??
Hint: its not Dickens.

Ok, well you've given me enough to guess the author to be Mr. David John Moore Cornwell, aka John le Carré. And from the publishing year, that would make it The Mission Song. I haven't read it, but I know it has received some pub in these forums.

It's been a while since I've read anything from him. The last was probably The Tailor of Panama.

Ok, here's a semi-famous opening.

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad."

I got nuthin'. Come back Major!! Come back anyone!!

"....can you do the fandango,
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me!
Galileo, galileo,
Galileo, figaro..."

Did I get it? I would have also gotten Mission Song had I been around. Minor Le Carre, imo.

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit,
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse...

quote:

Originally posted by kendocubano:
"....can you do the fandango,
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me!
Galileo, galileo,
Galileo, figaro..."

Did I get it?

Indeed you did, sir, but you messed up the lyrics.
"Galileo, galileo,
Galileo, galileo,
Galileo, figaro..."

quote:

Originally posted by kendocubano:
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit,
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse...

Well, I actually know this one, but considering you don't even need to have read it to guess it...
Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Here's one from a favorite of mine:
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

quote:

Originally posted by blueskyoas:


Here's one from a favorite of mine:
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

I used this one a while ago. Go ahead and post another.

Oops. Is there anything well known that hasn't been used already?

Ok, here's another one, more recent in origin:
A scientist was, by definition, impassive. He cut his losses and moved on to something else; he was exhausted, perhaps, but never defiant with exhaustion. A scientist did not allow emotion to govern his experiments.

quote:

Originally posted by blueskyoas:

Ok, here's another one, more recent in origin:

Great quote. I don't know where it's from, but it sounds intriguing. Sounds like something from "Frankenstein," but I don't think it is.

Here's an expanded version of the quote. The book in question was released in 2006, and it's a very good novel about a group of scientific researchers.

Why had he tried twice more with the virus after it had failed? They were expecting an answer, but Cliff could not speak. The truth shamed him; it was so simple: he could not bear to jettison work that had taken so much time. The hours, the thousands of hours he'd spent, sickened him. How could he confess to that? The scientific method was precise and calibrated. A scientist was, by definition, impassive. He cut his losses and moved on to something else; he was exhausted, perhaps, but never defiant with exhaustion. A scientist did not allow emotion to govern his experiments.

quote:

Originally posted by blueskyoas:
The book in question was released in 2006,

I'm embarrassingly out of touch with a lot of fiction released the past few years.

Anyone want to Google this one? If not, just post another quote.