What are your favourite first sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its first sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the first line? – BTT
I don’t know if I have liked some books specifically because of their first line. Though, like most readers, I like a good first line. Looking back on some first lines, I like the lines more in memory of the fact I liked the books. I pretty
Here are some that I like :
“Happy families are all alike, and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“My father had a face that could stop a clock. I don’t mean that he was ugly or anything; it was a phrase the ChronoGuard used to describe someone who had the power to reduce time to an ultraslow trickle.” – Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” – Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” – Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca.
“All this happened, more or less.” – Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
To be fair, I only added books I have read. I would add Tale of Two Cities but I have yet to get to it.
5 Comments
Sally
You left some good ones; in fact, you did much better than I.
Rebecca @ Readerville
It looks like we share some favorites! I included the lines from Jane Austen and Tolstoy, and I also love Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Daphne DuMaurier. Wish I’d thought to use those as well.
Confuzzled Books
Slaughterhouse Five is a good one. And I Capture the Castle caught my attention.
Chris
Great minds think alike!
Marie
Wow, those are some great lines! The Eyre Affair is on my to read list.
Here’s my BTT post