It's a fantasy novel based on an old Scottish ballad (you don't have to be familiar with the ballad to read the book. I wasn't, and it's printed in the back anyway). It's set in the 70s and focuses on a girl called Janet who goes to a small liberal arts college as an English major and is friends with a bunch of people, some of them fairly strange and mysterious, who all quote Shakespeare and Classical writers at the drop of a hat.
It bores some people to tears, and I was an English minor who never encountered anyone who talks like Janet and her friends. The fantasy bit sort of increases over the book. I love it, though, especially picking out quotes from other books (Gaudy Night, which is one of the other first lines I included, Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet...).
It took me a while to get my hands on a copy here, but it's recently been reissued so it may be easier to find second hand if you're interested. The author is Pamela Dean.
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It bores some people to tears, and I was an English minor who never encountered anyone who talks like Janet and her friends. The fantasy bit sort of increases over the book. I love it, though, especially picking out quotes from other books (Gaudy Night, which is one of the other first lines I included, Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet...).
It took me a while to get my hands on a copy here, but it's recently been reissued so it may be easier to find second hand if you're interested. The author is Pamela Dean.