What's the best opening line of a book (fiction or non)?

[Meep]

Sorry Angel - Inside, Person - outside

 

[warm_enema]

I got another one for ya:

"God bless me, gentle (or it may be plebeian) reader, how eagerly must thou be looking foward to this..."

 

[Martin]

Additional information:

Title: Don Quixote.

Author: Miguel de Cervantes.

Cheers, Martin

 

[Chuchincakes]

"I often wonder how different my life might have been if Lisa Fennell had not made her dramatic entry into it; and I marvel that if people had not been in a certain place at the same moment they might never have been aware of each other's existence and their lives would have taken an entirely different course." from Daughter of Deceit by Victoria Holt


It made me wonder who Lisa Fennell was and did she do to so influence this person's life.

 

[Libra6Poe]

The Gunslinger - King

I also think "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed" is a great opening line. "It simultaneously introduces the protagonist, his adversary and the setting in a few well-chosen words." - Bev Vincent

 

[novella]

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

 

[starchild42]

"If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be that when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head." - The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, Brady Udall

"Afterward, he tried to reduce it to abstract terms, an accident in a world of accidents, the collision of opposing forces - the bumper of his car and the frail scrambling hunched-over form of a dark little man with a wild look in his eye - but he wasn't very successful." - The Tortilla Curtain, TC Boyle (sadly the rest of it doesn't seem to be living up to this excellent first line)

"The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me." - The Harvest, Amy Hempel (a short story and not a novel, but too good to ignore)

 

[Love4OneAnother]

"A country road. A tree. Evening." - Waiting For Godot, Samuel Beckett

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lolita, the tip of the tounge taking a trip of three steps, to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Le. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing 4 feet 10 in one sock. She was Lola in slacks, she was Dolly at school, she was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."- Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

 

[MickeyRooney]

The horror, which started in 1958 and wouldn't end until 26 years later, the final showdown. Or somethin like that, the beginning of stephen kings it, i also like the beginning of Kings Gunslinger "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed"

 

[Evil Homer]

Not strictly a novel but....

'I cant believe I lost my f**king ear, bang bang!' Mick Foley: Have a Nice Day

The opening line to 1984 too, but I cant remember exactly ow it goes. But it says it's 13 o clock, and I had to read it a few times to figure out why it seemed strange.

 

[Grendel]

What about: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Such an innocuous line to begin such an epic story - if you move from The Hobbit to The Lord of The Rings - that eventually concludes with the epic battle to save the entire (good) population of the world.

 

[carpetfibers]

"Who is John Gault?" - by Ayn Rand in her book, Atlas Shrugged

"Mrs. Mooney was a butcher's daughter."- by James Joyce in his short story, The Boarding House

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." -by Franz Kafka in his novella, The Metamorphosis

"Call me Ishmael." -by Herman Melville in his book, Moby Dick

"All children, except one, grow up." -by James Barrie in his book, Peter Pan

"'To be born again,'" sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "'first you have to die.'" -by Salman Rushdie in The Satanic Verses


Goodness...so bloody many. Oh, and my personal favorite mostly because it's perhaps my favorite book:

"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him." -by Joseph Heller in his book, Catch 22

 

[mojo]

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Arrrgh, what's that from? I know I've read that book and I just can't place it....

 

[novella]

Arrrgh, what's that from? I know I've read that book and I just can't place it....

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

What I love about that line is the voice, which establishes the tone of the whole novel, in which events unfold and people are carried along by them, never really in control of their destinies. And the voice is modest, yet pulls you into the narrative so well.

 

[Halo]

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." -by Franz Kafka in his novella, The Metamorphosis

Blimey, that one gets straight to the point, doesn't it?

 

[carpetfibers]

That's Kafka for you. How he manages to pull off a man becoming a cockroach as realistic is mind boggling, but he does it all the same.

 

[mojo]

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

What I love about that line is the voice, which establishes the tone of the whole novel, in which events unfold and people are carried along by them, never really in control of their destinies. And the voice is modest, yet pulls you into the narrative so well.

Thank you, that was driving me mad

 

[Grammath]

'It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

Gives you an instant, uneasy, "what's wrong with this picture?" feeling.

 

[Halo]

'It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

Gives you an instant, uneasy, "what's wrong with this picture?" feeling.

Exactly. I love this one. It's the only opening line I can quote from memory (which came in handy when the question came up on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! Unfortunately, I was only playing at home.)

 

[Kookamoor]

I saw this forum topic and was reminded of doing the 'first sentence test' in literature class back when I was in high school (some 8 years ago). My friend had this book sitting on her desk and we were discussing first sentences in class. She opened it up and laughed out loud in the middle of the classroom at what remains one of my favorite opening lines.

"A sealed envelope is an enigma containing further enigmas."
- The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte

I'd all but forgotten about this book, and had to do a Google search on "envelope is an enigma" to work out what the book was. I'll be reading it the first chance I get, now!