>From “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” by T.E. Lawrence: …we had ridden far out over the rolling plains of North Syria to a ruin of the Roman period which the Arabs believed was made by a prince of the border as a desert-palace for his queen. The clay of its building was said to have been kneaded for greater richness, not with water, but with the precious essential oils of flowers. My guides, sniffing the air like dogs, led me from crumbling room to room, saying, “This is jessamine, this violet, this rose.” But at last Dahoum drew me: “Come and smell the very sweetest scent of all”, and we went into the main lodging, to the gaping window sockets of its eastern face, and there drank with open mouths of the effortless, empty, eddyless wind of the desert, throbbing past. That slow breath had been born somewhere beyond the distant Euphrates and had dragged its way across many nights and days of dead grass, to its first obstacle, the man-made walls of our broken palace. About them it seemed to fret and linger, murmuring in baby-speech.
On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 9:15 PM Venkatesh Hariharan <ven...@gmail.com> wrote: > Speaking of smells, this is one of the best opening paragraphs that I have > ever read in any novel. > > > *IT WAS INEVITABLE: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the > fate of unrequited love. Dr. Juvenal Urbino noticed it as soon as he > entered the still darkened house where he had hurried on an urgent call to > attend a case that for him had lost all urgency many years before. The > Antillean refugee Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, disabled war veteran, > photographer of children, and his most sympathetic opponent in chess, had > escaped the torments of memory with the aromatic fumes of gold cyanide.* > > From *Love in the times of cholera* by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. > > Would love to discover other examples of great opening paragraphs. Do > share. > > Venky > > > On Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:20 AM Jitendra Vaidya <jitendra.vai...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 10:16 PM Danese Cooper <dan...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > “This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or > > > pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint > > or > > > ― Patrick Suskind, Perfume The Story of a Murderer > > > > One of my favorite books! Thank you for the quote, Danese. > > > > -Jiten > > > > >
