The Sound and The Fury, by William Faulkner
Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.
(Faulkner's title is taken from MacBeth, where he says, "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.")

The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge, a Story of a Man of Character, by Thomas Hardy. 

One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot.