First Impressions

This week's First Impressions, the competition in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, comes from an author who was accused of penning a novel of "scandalous notoriety" when it first appeared in 1891:

"On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor."

The winner receives a £20 book token and the closing date is August 4.

Entries should be sent to
First Impressions
The THES
Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield
London E1 9XY

faxed to 0171-782 3300
or emailed to theschat@thes.co.uk

The winner of last week's competition, who identified Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ , is Janet Fraser of the University of Westminster.