steinbeck + hemingway
August 1, 2005 8:02 PM

Online literature: I am trying to find the first paraghraphs from novels by Steinbeck and Hemingway. Online and for free. Or any means of retrieving excerpts from their novels.

I am trying to set up an opening for a wedding using the first paragraph from one of our favorite novels.
posted by snsranch to Media & Arts (9 answers total)
Amazon has a "look inside" feature that allows you to read the first few pages of a book.
posted by jrossi4r at 8:19 PM on August 1, 2005


If you search for a phrase from the book, Amazon will actually allow you to view just about any excerpt from the book. I've had trouble finding the exact phrase to search for, but it can be done.
posted by mullacc at 8:34 PM on August 1, 2005


Whoops - I linked to the wrong book! Here it is. See, I told you it was hard.
posted by mullacc at 8:38 PM on August 1, 2005


This might have it, but it is down right now.
posted by 517 at 9:34 PM on August 1, 2005


First Chapters has Hemingway's "True at First Light".
posted by ericb at 9:58 PM on August 1, 2005


I've found that for some books on amazon, you can search enter a page number in your search inside the book and it will retrieve that page as one of the hits (since the number is written on the page).
posted by duck at 6:04 AM on August 2, 2005


Or any means of retrieving excerpts from their novels.

If these are your favorite novels, you probably own them. In any case, you can get them from any library.

Select a book and lay it on your desk open to the first page. Use a paperweight if necessary to keep it open to the correct page. Now open a word processing document and type in the first paragraph.

The first paragraph of For Whom the Bell Tolls, for example, has only about 90 words, and -- it is, of course, Hemingway -- they are all short and simple. This comment is longer and more complicated than that, and, as I draw near to the end of it, I am not exactly aching from the effort.
posted by pracowity at 7:15 AM on August 2, 2005


pracowity: Just to clarify, I was hoping for an online/compooterized resource as I will be, hopefully, scanning through hundreds of texts for the sake of finding one that fits perfectly in a WEDDING SCRIPT that I am currently writing.

As for everyone else, thank you. The amazon thing is VERY helpful!
posted by snsranch at 5:28 PM on August 2, 2005


So you also don't mean "novels by Steinbeck and Hemingway," because they didn't write "hundreds of texts" you could scan, unless maybe you're now counting short stories. (Still wouldn't be enough.)

But you could still do the work faster at the library: read until you find the one you want, then type it in.
posted by pracowity at 10:52 PM on August 2, 2005


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