How do you play Opening Lines?

Read the opening sentence and choose the novel it belongs to. Look for the narrator, setting and tone as clues. A remembered first sentence can help, but a line can also be a starting point for finding a new book to read.

When do the daily book games change?

New puzzles arrive at midnight UTC. That may be morning, afternoon or evening in your time zone. The date on the game identifies the puzzle everyone is playing.

Can I play without an account?

You can play the daily games as a guest. Sign in if you want to keep your streaks across devices, and use the archive links when you want an earlier puzzle. Avoid posting an answer where people who have not played will see it.

Secondhand · Well-read · Much loved

Creasy Spines

“Every crease is a story.”

Vol. I · No. 292Monday, 19 October 2026Today’s edition

Opening Lines #10 · Monday, 10 August 2026

Opening Lines

Five first sentences from public-domain classics. Which book does each one open?

Replaying an archived puzzle. Play today’s

Line 1

“The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.”

The Time MachineH. G. WellsThe Adventures of Tom SawyerMark TwainA Room of One's OwnVirginia WoolfAlice's Adventures in WonderlandLewis Carroll

Line 2

“We were in class when the head-master came in, followed by a ‘new fellow,’ not wearing the school uniform, and a school servant carrying a large desk.”

The Time MachineH. G. WellsMadame BovaryGustave FlaubertA Passage to IndiaE. M. ForsterThe Count of Monte CristoAlexandre Dumas

Line 3

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,”

MiddlemarchGeorge EliotA Tale of Two CitiesCharles DickensThe Picture of Dorian GrayOscar WildeTess of the d'UrbervillesThomas Hardy

Line 4

“Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place;”

To the LighthouseVirginia WoolfA Room of One's OwnVirginia WoolfAnne of Green GablesL. M. MontgomeryTess of the d'UrbervillesThomas Hardy

Line 5

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own;”

Little WomenLouisa May AlcottThe War of the WorldsH. G. WellsThe Thirty-Nine StepsJohn BuchanDavid CopperfieldCharles Dickens

Archive · Your stats · First lines are from works published before 1930.

A few playing notes

How do you play Opening Lines?: Read the opening sentence and choose the novel it belongs to. Look for the narrator, setting and tone as clues. A remembered first sentence can help, but a line can also be a starting point for finding a new book to read.
When do the daily book games change?: New puzzles arrive at midnight UTC. That may be morning, afternoon or evening in your time zone. The date on the game identifies the puzzle everyone is playing.
Can I play without an account?: You can play the daily games as a guest. Sign in if you want to keep your streaks across devices, and use the archive links when you want an earlier puzzle. Avoid posting an answer where people who have not played will see it.