First Impressions

This week's competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is from a picaresque novelist with an interest in siblings: " It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts: and if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more strongly so in what is amiable and praiseworthy ."

The winner receives a £25 Blackwells voucher and
the closing date is November 9 .

Entries should be sent to:

First Impressions
The THES
Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield
London E1W 1BX,

faxed to 020-7782 3300
or emailed to theschat@thes.co.uk

The winner of last week's competition, who correctly identified Samuel Beckett's Molloy , is Maggie Butcher of Gresham College, London.