Mini-Contest #2
As you can see, I really like this whole “fifth line” thing…. Lines that make perfect sense in context become wonderfully ridiculous out of it.
So here’s the question for today: Of all of yesterday’s fifth lines, which was your favorite and why?
(You can find the list of lines here.)
In honor of Pink Carnation’s impending fifth birthday, five people will be chosen at random to receive an excerpt from the upcoming Mischief of the Mistletoe.
I’d have to go with the “damn, damn, damn” line. It made me smile when I saw it.
Lady Uppington smiled broadly in acknowledgment, revealing a mouthful of blackened teeth.
That was a funny scene.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
Because this has happened to me oh-so-many times… *sigh*
“‘Some men have all the luck,’ hiccuped Murat, from somewhere just below the rim of the table.”
number 7 is great! i remember giggling at that line. that and the Damn damn damn one lol
Not only did Amy disagree heartily with the sentiment — she defied any future husband to try to claim a distribution of her objects movable or otherwise without her concurrence — but it was utterly useless to her investigation.
I just thought this line was typical Amy and I remember loving it when I first read the book five years ago!
“How in the hell could you think he and I were the same person?”
I love Richard in this scene–so put upon, angry, chivalrous and loving all at the same time. Sigh! I think it sums up his character nicely!
“He was jealous of his own bloody self.”
I just love picturing Richard in the throes of his unusual internal struggle. 😀
“It wouldn’t be at all bad if it weren’t for the color,†commented Geoff wistfully.
Has to be my favorite line. The color of course is everything and the irony in this line, which always makes me laugh, or at least chuckle, represents the humor I always find and love in the Pink series. It is the combination of irony and historical accuracy that makes this series stand out above others 🙂
Do we have to answer the sphinx’s riddle before we can go upstairs to bed.
Jane pondered this new information, doll dangling forgotten from one hand.
The image of Jane with a doll at all is intriguing, and now I want to re-read (yet again) to figure out what she was doing with it in the first place.
“The Purple Gentian placed a hand under her bottom and boosted her over the windowsill, as unceremoniously as though he were heaving a sack of grain into a wagon. p. 26”
Oh, snap!
Richard felt a great deal of sympathy for the Tower menagerie as he flung himself into a chair, which, of course, promptly skidded back a good six inches.
Because nothing ever goes right(including trying to sit in a chair, or couch in my case) when you’re having a bad day. Fate always manages to dump you on your rump. 🙂
i got the line “damn,damn,damn” i think this is so funny
Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more
Because I would do the same if I had a giant globe.
My favorite line is “The whole idea was just too medieval, too melodramatic, too…Delaroche,” for its wit and historical reference!
Fingers tightening around the paper in her hands, she gazed rapturously at the sky.
I love this quote… it’s so full of meaning and mystery. Taking it out of context like this makes every reader hungry for more.
I like Kellie’s!!
“You may change your mind when you hear what I have to tell you.”
Richard didn’t give her chance to make another sound.
Gotta love that one 🙂
London gossip named everyone from Beau Brummel (on the grounds that no one could genuinely be that interested in fashion) to the Prince of Wales’s dissolute brother the duke of York.
This line always makes me chuckle when I’m reading the novel. Even out of context, I still found it amusing. 🙂
Indeed, some said he was Sir Percy Blakeney, fooling the foolish French by returning under a different name.
Sir Percy returning, even in speculation, is a glorious thing. 🙂
This one was one of my favorites:
“Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.”
This is just one of my many favorites from that list:
“I don’t know why you children always think you can distract me like that.”
Because, my brothers and I have, from time to time, distracted our Mother in the same way employed by Richard and Hen… and sometimes for the same reasons. Apparently marrying off your children will never go out of style.
“Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they beheaded their nobility.”
“I don’t know why you children always think you can distract me like that.â€
I liked this one in the book, and it’s fun on it’s own too!
“How in the hell could you think he and I are the same person?”
I love this line! You can just hear how appalled and horrified Richard is over Amy thinking Marston is the Purple Gentian. And then Amy’s humor at his suffering. I love that even though Richard was angry and had just had his pride hurt he was so worried about Amy.
I like #9, “It wouldn’t be all that bad if it weren’t for the color” – it’s just seems to have a whole story behind it. I liked my own as well, which was damn, damn, damn just because it’s a very funny random line.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
This is my favorite line picked, by far! Not only does it remind me of the fist line of Pride and Prejudice but it also reminds me of me 🙂 I can never seem to come up with a good comeback until I’ve thought about it for hours and no one else even remembers…
And I also want to say I think its so ironic that out of a long book, phrases got repeated a lot. I just seems so unlikely 😀
“What was he doing here, now, when she was so close to taking her well deserved revenge?â€
I so often plan my little ‘getting even’ fantasies, complete with satisfied chortling, but I’m too cowardly to actually to take action. Or I think of the perfect witty comeback too late, but mostly I’m a chicken.
I’d have to go with:
“The young lady paid no attention.” Really, how appropriate is this? How often did Amy, Henrietta, Letty etc mind their own business? 🙂 Love it.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.”
The first thing that comes to mind when I read it was Jane Austen. To see that famous line beginning accompanied by a whole different truth universally acknowledged was pleasing on many levels!
“He was jealous of his own bloody self.”
“Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.â€
Simply because I can see Richard doing it…with Miles and probably Hen cheering him to make it spin faster! It just makes me smile and giggle.
I have to agree with Diana: “He was jealous of his own bloody self.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.” Nice twist on classic remarks!
Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they beheaded their nobility.
I love this line because it’s so quintessentially Amy. If something doesn’t fit into her plan, she just ignores it and merrily goes on her way. Or she makes up another plan…and another…and another…until something works!
#24 A small and all-too-familiar figure was wriggling its way out from under the desk.
I love it because it was so true of Amy. Trying so hard to be a covert spy and having an all to recognizable figure. Not a good combination! 🙂
“Damn, damn, damn”
I have to say #68 – “He was jealous of his own bloody self.â€
It’s just so evocative of the double life that Richard was leading at the time – especially since he was the ONE person Amy was sure couldn’t be the Purple Gentian.
“The whole idea was just too medieval, too melodramatic, too…Delaroche.”
Love the word choice!
“Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they beheaded their nobility” Amy is such a great character.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
Its witty, has Austen, and is just generally amazing, especially for being chosen at random!
London gossip named everyone from Beau Brummel (on the grounds that no one could genuinely be that interested in fashion) to the Prince of Wales’s dissolute brother the duke of York.
Oh, the historical hillarity!
He was jealous of his own bloody self.
It just wraps up the whole romantic conflict so nicely for being chosen at random.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
Austen parody, hands down!
London gossip named everyone from Beau Brummel (on the grounds that no one could genuinely be that interested in fashion) to the Prince of Wales’s dissolute brother the duke of York.
far too funny to pass up!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
This is how I always feel!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
Very good line!
“Indeed, some said he was Sir Percy Blakeney, fooling the foolish French by returning under a different name.”
Dearest Percy is to thank for the Pink Carnation, is he not? I think he deserves a little bit of praise. And I just love the old movie version with Jane Seymour, Anthony Andrews, and Ian McKellen.
#32:
No era exactamente el tipo de puerta que podria dejarse entreabierta accidentalmente.
Don’t know what that means but it just sounds/looks cool in spanish 🙂
“Huzzah for the Purple Gentian!” his men would cheer.
I just love the word “huzzah” and I wish I could figure out a way to bring it back into our lexicon!
I would have to go with “some men have all the luck.” This coming from a man in a drunken stupor under the table. It just cracks me up.
“Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.”
It’s such a hilarious image. I have no trouble imagining Richard (as well as Hen and Miles) causing such havoc.
“Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.”
I work with ages 1 to 10 on a daily basis and I’ve seen my fair of toys being broken in ways similar to the way Richard broke the globe. This line makes me smile because, who knows, I may be teaching a child who will one day be in the secret service (but only if I can get him/her to stop throwing blocks at his/her friends).
# 53 – What was he doing here, now, when she was so close to taking her well deserved revenge?
It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book! I loved how deflating and empowering the moment is … it’s like – “grr … stupid man” and “I’ll show him” all rolled in one.
“He was jealous of his own bloody self.â€
It is just part of one of my favorite scenes: Amy’s “sweet revenge” for him not telling her, and letting him know she had fallen for him.. or at least a side of him. 🙂
My vote is for:
“Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they beheaded their nobility.”
Amy’s brain was always about 2 steps behind her actions. 🙂
Oh, #73. “If only it ever happened that way.”
Could be my personal motto—I’m a wisher and a daydreamer. Isn’t this sentence the reason we read Romance?
This was definitely my favourite:
“What was he doing here, now, when she was so close to taking her well deserved revenge?”
“Do we have to answer the sphinx’s riddle before we can go upstairs to bed”
– because it is such an odd, cryptic line. Taken out of context like that, it leads the imagination down all sorts of odd paths; if you just read that line you would have no idea what sort of book it came out of.
It has been mentioned earlier but I love: ” He was jealous of his own bloody self!” I mean who gets to be jealous of themselves nowdays huh? Yet again who gets to go around with masks and tights and night!
Anything with the word huzzah gets my vote:
“Huzzah for the Purple Gentian!” his men would cheer.
I’d have to go with #2 “How in the hell could you think he and I were the same person?”
Obviously, one of the most important aspects of being able to perform deeds as the purple gentian is that no one knows who he is! I always thought it was funny that Richard berated Amy for not knowing who he isn’t when she very well couldn’t know who he is. It’s just so very Richard =)
I have to go with #39:
“Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.”
Page 166
It’s just such a great picture, and I had the same habit at the same age, luckily without ever destroying any globes 🙂
#9 – Definitely the most hilarious out of context!
How interesting that there were several 5th line repeats… My vote is for Geoff being wistful in #9. Wistful is not a word used often enough, and I know exactly how he feels. So many times things are very nearly perfect – except for the color, which is highly offensive. Wistful evokes such empathy; poor Geoff.
“In this patchwork way, she reported that Augustus Whitlesby had spent the past day prostrate at the feet of a minor statue of Pan, and the past evening pursuing his muse in the arms of one of the girls of Mme Pinpin’s house of pleasure.”
I really enjoy this sentence. Firstly, because the image of prostrate Augustus makes me smile. But also because I’m always left wondering what is really going on behind Augustus’ action. That, to me, makes him one of the most intriguing of the Pink Carnation characters and the little snippets you give us him always leave me wanting more (and leave me wanting him to end up with Jane).
I also just read your syllabus. Sounds fascinating and fun. Makes me wish that I got to read Lisa Kleypas and Georgette Heyer for a class! Well, I do have 14th century Welsh chronicles, which are fun in their own way…
I loved comment 59
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
I loved this one because of the reference to Pride and Predjudice as well as the unfortunate truth of the sentiment.
I enjoyed #22: Jane pondered this new information, doll dangling forgotten from one hand.
You just don’t see this reaction happening all that often to Jane, so it was fun to see it when it did happen. 🙂
I liked the line “He was jealous of his own bloody self” It just sums up the irony of the entire situation.
My favorite of those entered is:
Richard felt a great deal of sympathy for the Tower menagerie as he flung himself into a chair, which, of course, promptly skidded back a good six inches.
I can just picture him feeling this and mental movies of him flinging himself into the chair and having it skid back is just so vivid a picture. The line makes me want to giggle.
The “Richard didn’t give her a chance to make another sound!” line is great.
I personally liked “Damn damn damn” because that’s a refrain that goes through my mind often. I also liked the one that I got, “If only it ever happened that way”, because I’m constantally dreaming perfect scenarios in my head that never seem to go as planned.
If only it ever happened that way.
A sentiment I can relate to!!