Dear Reader,
Recently I created a pop quiz where you match the first sentence of a Jane Austen novel to the correct Austen novel. However, a certain authoress told me that the quiz was far too easy. So to make amends, I have a quiz for you that should be a bit more challenging. Even if you haven’t read all the novels, you might still have fun taking the quiz. So go ahead, grab a cup of tea, jump right in, and make some guesses. And let me know how you do.1
I’ll leave the answers as a comment below.
1.
“In vain did she entreat him to stand up with somebody else, and offer to introduce him to any young lady in the room. He assured her that as to dancing, he was perfectly indifferent to it; that his chief object was by delicate attentions to recommend himself to her, and that he should therefore make a point of remaining close to her the whole evening.”
2.
“The shortness of his visit, the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them, originated in the same fettered inclination, the same inevitable necessity of temporising with his mother.”
3.
“They ought to be setting off for Uppercross by one, and in the meanwhile were to be all together, and out of doors as long as they could.”
4.
“Yes, my dear, a very odd appearance indeed. I cannot bear to see it.” (Hint: concerning carriages.)
5.
“November was the black month fixed for his return.”
6.
“This topic was discussed very happily, and others succeeded of similar moment, and passed away with similar harmony; but the evening did not close without a little return of agitation.”
I picked the first full sentence(s) from page 100 of each of my Penguin Classics Clothbound editions. If the first full sentence contained character names, then I skipped to the next sentence(s).
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Persuasion
4. Northanger Abbey
5. Mansfield Park
6. Emma
I got 4/6 🥲🥲