I used the following for my Lovecraft books, it seemed to do the job.
Code:
p.newscene2 {
text-indent:0;
margin-top:2em;
}
span.dropcap {
float:left;
font-size:4.7em;
line-height:0.8em;
margin-right:3pt;
margin-bottom:-0.1em;
}
<p class="newscene2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>he first line</p>
Not the most sophisticated, but was good enough for my first ever book.