Where exactly is that Howl's sentence in The Thief?

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

I've just got my copy of Howl's Moving Castle back from my friend and it kinda triggered something MWT mentioned in the extra of The Thief (the recent Harper Collins paperback edition).

If I remembered it correctly, she said she loved to allude to her favourite books and there's an object from some book I can't remember the name and a whole sentence (?) from Howl's.

Has any clever Sounisian ever find it or any other allusion to other books MWT listed in that extra?

Or should we all grab those books and start a Sounisian scavenger hunt?

Comments

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

'What a lie that was' said by Gen in both the Thief and KoA, and by Howl at the end of HMC

The object is the emerald ring with the flawed side that he finds at the back of the maze in the Thief... but I can't right now remember where that's from. :)

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Eagle of the Ninth.

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

I thought it was Mark of the Horse Lord? *can't quite remember for certain*

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Nope. The Mark of the Horse Lord reference is the fibula pin in KoA -- two inches in the right place would do it.

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

Now I have to add Rosemary Sutcliff to my long and winded list of To-be-reads.

[gkchesterton1.livejournal.com]

The ring is from The Eagle of the Ninth, but it also is in many other Sutcliff books. It is a heirloom that gets passed on.
The Silver Branch
The Lantern Bearers
Sword at Sunset
Frontier Wolf
The Shield Ring
Dawn Wind
Sword Song

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, Thanks! I know you guys must have nailed it already!

And what a funny sentence as well. lolz

"What a lie that was...."

[deirdrej.livejournal.com]

As I remember, Gen says those words after he's told the lady at the first inn, who gave him the extra food, that jail isn't so bad. (Oh, wow! that sentence looks like an exercise in tenses!) They're riding down the road after leaving the inn, and Gen says "What a lie that was!" And Sophos asks whether jail was bad. And Gen replies, "That jail was absolutely the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life!" And poor Sophos just says, "Oh." While Gen is thinking that obviously, Sophos thinks Gens life has been A Series of Unfortunate Events.....

I don't have the book on me right now, or I'd be able to quote, which would be MUCH better than my transcriptions!

;-D

[(Anonymous)]

At some point either Gen or Attolia says that.

As far as I remember, Attolia looks at him psuedo meekly and says, "You've always been kind to me."

And after a while both laugh, and Gen, shaking his head says, "What a lie that was."

There. Found it.

The queen smiled. “What did she see in Sophos, then?”

It took the king some time to find an answer. “He was kind,” he said at last.

“And you’re not?” Attolia responded sharply.

Finally the king turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised in amusement. He shook his head.

“No,” she observed thoughtfully. “You aren’t, are you?” Then she dropped her eyes in a mocking imitation of demurral and
said, “You’ve always been kind to me.”

The king laughed out loud. He held out his arm, and she leaned against him.

“What a lie that was,” he said.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, VERY well spotted!

So now I'm looking at The Thief, and the quote is just where I thought it was, though the surrounding words are a little different. It's on p 44 of the American pb ed.

"Don't worry too much," I said as the magus dragged my horse away. "It's not so bad."
...
"What a lie that was," I added under my breath as we left the inn behind.

And the bit with Sophos is a couple of pages later.

So (so, so...) Now I wonder...does Gen say this somewhere in ALL the books? Or just a couple?
Hmmm...
~deirdrej

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

Appropriately, I believe Howl is drunk when he says that.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't catch 'What a lie that was.' Gen says 'All my beauty gone' when he gets the mark on his face towards the end of 'The Thief' and I'm sure Howl says that, too, but I can't find it on a quick search, so I may be wrong.

There aren't many books that are as much fun to re-read (many times!) as they are to read the first time through, but DWJ and MWT manage it every time.

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

I'll second that. MWT & DWJ's are such a great re-read.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that IS a Howl quote... though I also failed to locate it in any of his three DWJ books. But my memory is a stubborn thing, and it's telling me you're right.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose there's a tribute line in ACoK?

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

We've already spotted the Shakespeare. :)

[ballerina-222.livejournal.com]

talking about the "screwed my courage to the sticking place" line, right?

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Mais oui.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is. It's from Spellcoats. Well, it's not a line, just a reference. Some other brilliant person pointed it out--Sophos reads something by Hern.

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

So I have to dug up my copy of Spellcoats as well...

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

I believe when Gen is convalescing in Eddis in The Thief he says something along the lines of "I'm dying of boredom...or just dying." Howl says the exact same thing somewhere in Howl's Moving Castle...

Alright, after searching awhile, I confess I can't find it. However, the same line is used as a quote for both books on Goodreads.

BUT, while searching, I found out that Eddis is the same age as Gen's brother Temenus: "My brother Temenus had broken her nose with a practice sword when they were eleven." Meaning Gen's brother is 5 years older than him. I realize most of you probably already know this, but I typed it up anyway. I've always wondered about Gen's siblings...

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

"I'm dying of boredom," Howl said pathetically. "Or maybe just dying." - From the chapter titled "In Which a Royal Wizard catches a cold".

Can't find the similar quote in MWT's books...

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find the reference in TT, but Costis says in KoA (p. 80, hardcover) that he thinks the king will keep him as a lieutenant "Until I die, I think ... Probably of boredom." And then later makes another snarky remark about the king "waiting until boredom kills me." (p. 81)

And of course there's the whole theme of Gen hating to be bedridden, which he nevertheless is at least once in each of the first 3 books.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was extremely surprised when he wasn't in bed at all during ACoK! (Though maybe the whole ?!sick?! thing counts.)

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

reading this is making me all giddy and excited inside...I know what's on my reread list ;)

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

In LMBujold's Memory, Miles thinks, "I'm tired, and I want my dinner." And at the end of KoA, Gen says, "I'm tired. And I want my breakfast."

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

WIN WIN WIN!!!

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

Argh, I'm still waiting for my copy of Memory to arrive, which is excruciating since I've already got Komarr and Civil Campaign omnibus tempting me on the shelf!

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh those books are good! (Wait we already had this conversation. :D) I am in the process of reading the Miles part of the series and I can't wait for the next one to get to me from Amazon.

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

To be frank, at first I only read Miles serie as "that serie on Cordelia and Aral's son". It took the Border of Infinity to nail me down, then I'm all the ways smitten!

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Yay! What everyone else said! I love references and dwj and mwt!

[tenar-padmire.livejournal.com]

And because of all this, I google up all sorts of synopses.

DWJ references SPOILER CoK

[(Anonymous)]

SPOILER CoK


...and in The Dark Lord of Derkholm, when the wizard's son gets kidnapped and forced to work for the bad guys - there's a strong similarity to when Sophos gets kidnapped and Basrus puts out his tooth, I was thinking. Though haven't read DLoD in *ages*.