“The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.” Chapter 1: The Day He […]
Japanese literature
Runaway Horses
“The moment the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.” Book One: The Sea of Fertility The […]
French literature
The Disappearance
“A void. A gaping void. A void which swallows up all, which annihilates all, which voids all.” Chapter 1: The Vanishing The novel opens with the sudden disappearance […]
American literature
Slaughterhouse-Five
“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.” Chapter 1 The novel opens with the author’s meta-commentary, explaining his struggle to write […]
English literature
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
“I have yet to meet a phallus with scruples.” — John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman Chapters 1–7 The novel opens in 1867 in Lyme Regis, England, where […]