“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen Read more

“High, high above the North Pole, on the first day of 1969, two professors of English Literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1200 miles per hour.” Changing Places David Lodge Read more

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath Read more

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” The Go-Between L.P. Hartley Read more

“…and the government of the United States of America is herewith suspended, except in the District of Columbia, as of the emergency.” Earth Abides George R. Stewart Read more

“It was the summer of 1923, the summer I came down from Cambridge, when despite my aunt’s wishes that I return to Shropshire, I decided that my future lay in the capital and took up a small flat at Number 14b Bedford Gardens in Kensington.” When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro Read more

“Acid flowed at the table more often than wine and had long since ceased to cause Lily alarm; her attention remained on the soup even as Father asked, ‘Does the thought of me still pain your head, love?’” Sea Change S.M. Wheeler Read more

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald Read more