What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
► UNSOLVED: One specific book
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"I was born in the year..." "or so I'm told"
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Hmm. I'll check that book out but I've never read it before. The book I read was a novel / fiction. Thanks for the response and for referring this new book.
Anyone else know what I'm talking about? It's one of those books high school English teachers use in their curriculum.
Sorry - Seeing that "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?" is also fiction. My bad.
Lobstergirl, I appreciate you so much!
That's not it either. I looked at the first pages of both of the books you recommended just to be sure I wasn't forgetting what I read.
It's a book most people would have heard of, I believe.
This is driving me nuts.
Thanks again for your efforts.
Nadav
Nadav wrote: "Hello all. I read this book a while back, may be in the 1990's but I think it's a classic. What I remember is the start. It started with a first person narrator indicating where he was born, the ..."
Robinson Crusoe?
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznear; but by the usual corruption of words in England we are now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our name, Crusoe, and so my companions always called me.
Robinson Crusoe
It was exactly this type of intro but the author specifically stated "or so I have been told" or something to that effect indicating that our name and language and origin are arbitrary and our cultural values are equally arbitrary - that if everyone told him it was a different year that would have made no difference, it's just a number we all agree on without any actual import.... I'm so sorry to bother everyone with this goose chase. I wish I could find the answer and share it and we would all go "ahhhh right!"Thanks Kajehas
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens? "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night.
I need say nothing here, on the first head, because nothing can show better than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsified by the result. On the second branch of the question, I will only remark, that unless I ran through that part of my inheritance while I was still a baby, I have not come into it yet. But I do not at all complain of having been kept out of this property; and if anybody else should be in the present enjoyment of it, he is heartily welcome to keep it."
Getting closer. This is very similar. But not it. Darn!
Mod
Not "I, Claudius"? Long shot, don't think that quote starts it, but kind of the same tone maybe.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
David Copperfield (other topics)Robinson Crusoe (other topics)
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (other topics)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (other topics)
What I remember is the start. It started with a first person narrator indicating where he was born, the year, his name and he appends "or so I am told" to these "facts" about his origin.
His point here was how much arbitrary context we are given at birth that shapes our view of the world and that we don't question.
I'm sorry I don't have more... Anyone know what I'm talking about?
I'd love to find this book as I'm writing about this type of cultural lens that we all have and it would be a great example of it. No specific timeline for this request.