Favorite First Lines

[Anna Drake]

The post about the Lester Dent fiction formula got me thinking about opening lines. My all time favorite is from Twenty Pound Penalty by Dick Francis.

"Glue sniffing jockeys don't win the Derby. I'd never sniffed glue in my life."

It begins the interesting tale of a man and his son, and how far the son will go to protect the father. It also speaks to the self absorption of a politician, and how far he's willing to go to bring the son to his side. I thought the whole tale was well done.

So fess up. What's your favorite?

[Kasper Hviid]

I have an epub with my faves here, but one I really think stands out is the one from Douglas Addams' THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL:

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport."

After this slightly tangled line, the author explains: "Airports are ugly", and goes on an epic rant on that topic.

PIRATIN FU (1952) is a story about a chinese female pirate. I have yet to read it, but it start out with this decleration:

I am the she-tiger Fu.

Solid beginning - the narrator is one of the big players, and obviously, she knows it.

[gmw]

I can't remember what I said in previous threads on this topic, but the first one that springs to mind is from Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife

This still strikes me as one that carries many desirable attributes: it is memorable (I could have written it from memory but copied it from an ebook to save typing); its demand "universally acknowledged" immediately has the reader participating, questioning whether they think the statement is true; there is nothing passive about it; it is a clear statement of what is to come; and even when the reader is finished it remains an apt summary of what the story was about.

You can't say all that about many first lines.

[Terisa de morgan]

For me it would be the Spanish version of Rebecca:

"Anoche soñé que volvía a Manderley."

[gmw]

Terisa, why the Spanish version in particular? I don't know Spanish. Google translates your quote correctly (or close enough) to the original English. Is it the sound of the words or is there some particular distinction to the meaning of those words in Spanish?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by gmw

Terisa, why the Spanish version in particular? I don't know Spanish. Google translates your quote correctly (or close enough) to the original English. Is it the sound of the words or is there some particular distinction to the meaning of those words in Spanish?

The sound, it comes to my mind in a lot of situations.

[gmw]

Now you've got me wondering if there are any first lines in English books that work well by sound ... but at the moment I've got Jabberwocky stuck in my head and can't get past it. It probably came from trying to pronounce the Spanish, and since I don't know Spanish at all, all I got was nonsense sounds . I'll try again tomorrow, though I'll probably dream of mimsy borogoves.

[Anna Drake]

Originally Posted by gmw

Now you've got me wondering if there are any first lines in English books that work well by sound ....

May I suggest, "Call me Ishmael."

Edited to add: I don't read Spanish, so it was interesting to see so familiar a line translated into a language beside English. Thank you, Terisa, for sharing it.

And Pride and Prejudice. A true classic. Another opening that is wonderfully familiar.

And re: I am the she-tiger Fu, I like her style and suspect I would enjoy the book.

[Anna Drake]

And for those who don't read Spanish or aren't familiar with the book, it's the opening line from Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

[Jeremy Pallant]

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

[crich70]

"the Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us."
~The Time Machine

Not once in the whole book are we give his name. He's just 'the Time Traveller' throughout the length of the book.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Anna Drake

May I suggest, "Call me Ishmael." [...]

You may, of course, suggest it . It wasn't what I was looking for, and its associations for me aren't good; I didn't enjoy Moby Dick at all (well, except to get the context for the well known quotes).

I flicked through a number of books on my shelf today, any excuse is a good one, and came to the conclusion that it is rare to find a first line as poetic as that one from Rebecca.

Inspired by the posts here that gave no attribution - because no attribution was needed, I put together a set of first lines from well known books. (Well, some of these are very well known, others maybe not so much, but none of them are obscure.) I'm putting the source in spoilers, to give you a chance to think about them (if needed) before looking.

I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other.

Spoiler:

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

This is my favourite book in all the world, though I have never read it.

Spoiler:

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

This is the day and this the place where a dream turns a corner and a secret is told.

Spoiler:

In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard

It's barely worth using a spoiler with this one.

Sam Vimes sighed when heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it.

Spoiler:

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Or this one.

Marley was dead, to begin with.

Spoiler:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one."

Spoiler:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.

Spoiler:

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago . . .

Spoiler:

Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie.
(I had looked at some other titles first, but this is a much better first line than some of her more famous titles.)

[kennyc]

Well, I love first lines and don't know that I can pick just one but one of the more unusual I love is from Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany

"To wound the autumnal city." - Dhalgren.

others:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Tale of Two Cities

A screaming comes across the sky - Gravity's Rainbow

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Anna Karenina

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. - Neuromancer

....

[Bilbo1967]

With no apology for mentioning it again, because it is my favourite novel, I've always liked the opening lines of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath;

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

[kennyc]

I love that opening too....thanks Bilbo....and that reminds me of one of my new favorite opening lines, from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row:

'Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.'