Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Feb 21, 2007 22:33:58 GMT -5
This is something that came up in "So many books, so little time" and I thought it was interesting. Some books just have the most amazing opening lines, so what's your favorite?
I'm gonna start with an obvious one:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
- Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
|
|
Michelle
First novel published
Posts: 2,563
|
Post by Michelle on Feb 21, 2007 22:49:49 GMT -5
I'll add another pretty obvious one. Anna Karenina:
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
|
|
zeldafitzgerald
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
ancora imparo
Posts: 1,948
|
Post by zeldafitzgerald on Feb 22, 2007 0:07:16 GMT -5
Bizarre as it may be, I love:
"What about a teakettle?" from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (one of my very favorite books).
|
|
Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
|
Post by Bina on Feb 22, 2007 9:13:47 GMT -5
That´s funny Another classic : "Call me Ishmael". When I first read Moby Dick it was the only sentence I really understood! Also great: "My father had a face that could stop a clock." It´s from The Eyre affair by Jasper Fforde
|
|
Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
|
Post by Kristie on Feb 22, 2007 13:34:03 GMT -5
"The opera ghost really existed." ~The Phantom of the Opera I love this book.
"All children, except one, grow up" ~Peter Pan Also love this book.
|
|
|
Post by hoshi on Feb 22, 2007 14:39:52 GMT -5
Not taken from a classic, but from one of my favourite books:
The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw.
(Janet Fitch - White Oleander)
|
|
Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
|
Post by Kristie on Feb 23, 2007 16:44:45 GMT -5
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." ~Emma, Jane Austen
"He was born during the driest summer in forty years." ~Big Fish, Daniel Wallace
"In merry England in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood." ~The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle
|
|
Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
|
Post by Isa on Feb 23, 2007 19:05:15 GMT -5
Another one by Jane Austen (she was really good at this!):
"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." - Northanger Abbey
And another one:
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins." Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
|
|
|
Post by gilmoreren on Feb 24, 2007 6:50:19 GMT -5
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. "
J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye
|
|
louise
First short story featured in regional newspaper
Posts: 169
|
Post by louise on Feb 24, 2007 7:08:17 GMT -5
"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." Kafka - The Metamorphosis
|
|
|
Post by gilmoreren on Feb 24, 2007 13:40:42 GMT -5
It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. Its eyes were closed.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
|
|
Kristie
Novel turned into BBC miniseries
"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
Posts: 7,214
|
Post by Kristie on Apr 15, 2007 14:08:20 GMT -5
I had the idea to take all the first lines from all the books I've read and arrange them in some order to create a story or something. Anyone think that could be interesting?
|
|
|
Post by Dominique on Apr 15, 2007 19:41:04 GMT -5
I think that would be pretty cool, if you could make it work well
|
|
dreamer112
First short story featured in regional newspaper
Posts: 103
|
Post by dreamer112 on Apr 15, 2007 21:10:07 GMT -5
The first line of Pride and Prejudice is the best first line ever. But there are so many other good ones for example: When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. -To Kill a Mockingbird
|
|
Lu
Administrator
Posts: 5,469
|
Post by Lu on Apr 16, 2007 8:15:18 GMT -5
I had the idea to take all the first lines from all the books I've read and arrange them in some order to create a story or something. Anyone think that could be interesting? I wouldn't be able to do that...but it's an amazing idea.
|
|