What are the best first lines in fiction ?

[dipsydoodle]

Raymond Chandler had some good advice for writers: "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." Good counsel indeed for any writer whose masterpiece is temporarily bogged down in reflection, description, philosophising or fancy prose. But it applies only to crime fiction, doesn't it? Surely the mainstream novel doesn't need such low-level manipulations to interest its readers (who are perfectly happy with reflection, description, et cetera)?

Think again. According to a groundswell of opinion, 21st-century writers are losing the battle for the reader's attention – and must do something about it pronto.

The issue was recently raised at the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature (they're some words you seldom see in the same sentence) in Dubai when three writers talked about the importance of gripping readers from the first line. "I think people these days are so distracted in terms of iPads and iPhones," said Simon Kernick, "that… you need to bring them straight into the story very quickly indeed. If you spend too much time setting things up, it's not going to work."

Richard Madeley, the TV presenter turned novelist, concurred, saying: "The stories of Jane Austen and so on are wonderful but the days are gone when you could take a leisurely approach to writing. Other distractions mean you really have to grab the reader by the throat."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/what-are-the-best-first-lines-in-fiction-9182766.html

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.......

[longship]

1. "It was a dark and stormy night..."

Just kidding.

[Scuba]

2. "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction."

[grahamhgreen]

27. ROFL!!!

[Paladin]

47. +1. Thread winner, for sure. (nt)

[bowens43]

3. "The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm."

and

“The magician’s underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami.”

[66 dmhlt]

7. There's actually a contest using that phrase

Writing contest

The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed in 1982. The contest, sponsored by the English Department at San Jose State University, recognizes the worst examples of "dark and stormy night" writing. It challenges entrants to compose "the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."[6] The "best" of the resulting entries have been published in a series of paperback books, starting with It Was a Dark and Stormy Night in 1984.[16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night

[Dr Hobbitstein]

9. Another Roadside Attraction...

Classic Tom Robbins.

[Scuba]

33. The second one sounds like Carl Hiaasen.

[Little_Wing]

42. That book (Something Wicked This Way Comes) scared the bejeebus out of me at 12

It remains one of my all time favorites

[CBGLuthier]

4. Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,

brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Finnegans Wake.

[pinto]

5. Call me Ishmael.

[undeterred]

17. +100

[freebrew]

6. "All this happened, more or less."

K.V.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

8. "It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute."

[grahamhgreen]

30. Tom Robbins:-)

[EC]

10. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."


-- Charles Dickens



Read more: http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/3649#ixzz2vf6Vtw3c

[avebury]

50. +1000 K&R nt

[Glorfindel]

53. Yes. It doesn't get any better than that!

Runner-up: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

[elephant hunter]

11. At five o'clock that morning reveille was sounded,

as usual, by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters.

2nd choice:

The filigreed hands pointed to five minutes past four.


3rd choice:

On top of everything, the cancer wing was Number 13.

[Aristus]

12. "It was a cold day in April, and the clocks were just striking thirteen."

Nineteen Eighty-Four.

[malthaussen]

13. "Take my camel, dear"

"Take my camel, dear", said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.

Rose Macauley, The Towers of Trebizond."

Honorable mention to the first sentence of George MacDonald Fraser's The Pyrates, but as it"s length exceeds 250 words , impractical to post it here.

-- Mal

[Paladin]

14. "When I finally caught up with Abraham Traherne....."

".....he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts......"

There's more, and you can find the full sentence on-line. That's the opening of James Crumley's "The Last Good Kiss," a genuine masterpiece of mystery fiction. Highly recommended......

[Xyzse]

15. "It all began with Aurochs"

I don't know why, but that first line stuck with me.
Especially since it was also the last line in his trilogy.

The Albion War by Stephen R. Lawhead.

[neeksgeek]

16. "Chris Mankowski's last day on the job, two in the afternoon,

two hours to go, he got a call to dispose of a bomb."

Elmore Leonard's 1988 novel Freaky Deaky.

[frylock]

18. "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth..."

“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.”

[cyberswede]

19. Here's my fave. Surprise! It's Chandler. :)

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

From Red Wind (1938)

---
Edited to add my next favorite:

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. "Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks"

Ok..you sold me on Chandler.
shocking that i have never read him.

Not surprising: the first lines of Fear and Loathing I know well.

[CherokeeDem]

38. I love Raymond Chandler....

and this is one of my favorite opening lines...

The mood is set....

[babydollhead]

21. I first met Dean not long after

I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up. I had just gotten over a serious illness that I
won't bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and
my feeling that everything was dead.
Jack Kerouac, On The Road

[Fumesucker]

22. "He's a mad scientist and I'm his beautiful daughter." —Deety Burroughs

http://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Mad_Scientist%27s_Beautiful_Daughter

[The Stranger]

23. "To be born again, first you have to die . . . "

-Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

[unblock]

26. wait, tyler durden ripped off rushdie?

[CTyankee]

24. lont sentence from catcher in the rye...

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.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. "All this happened, more or less." Slaughterhous 5, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

nt

[Alex_]

28. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

[DiverDave]

62. Number 1 in my O.

Those books just hang with me.

[unblock]

29. Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, ...

Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation. —Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (1974)

[Scuba]

34. Brilliant!

[unblock]

36. the whole book is written in a similar fashion

the second chapter, each for begins only with a or b; the third, a, b, or c; etc.

starting with chapter 27 it goes back down, so z's go away, etc.

[Scuba]

37. Is Chapter 52 about aardvarks?

[unblock]

40. don't go and spoiler the sequel!

[villager]

31. "Where's Papa going with that ax?"

[Vinnie From Indy]

32. A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.

Last edited Thu Mar 13, 2014, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Confederacy of Dunces

[Jefferson23]

35. Fun thread, thanks. This first line pulls you right in, immediately:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

[CherokeeDem]

39. I know this is a great line...

but that book gave me nightmares....

[Jefferson23]

41. The story, the way he told it, certainly could. lol

His writing style was powerful, that book captivated me..so many emotions..extraordinary writer.

[CherokeeDem]

43. No question he was an extraordinary writer...

but that particular book disturbed like no other. I think because though his words, it became real.

[Little_Wing]

44. "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium."

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood.

Written in 1986. The older it grows, the truer it gets.

[Paladin]

48. I loved it in 1986. Reading it now would be too damn depressing.

I keep thinking of those Japanese tourists in the book, taking pictures of the inhabitants of a right-wing, theocratic U.S. No, I don't need that sort of depression-inducing novel, given the way things seem to be trending, these days.....

[Little_Wing]

49. It's been calling me to reread it, lately

I think it deserves another go.

[Maedhros]

45. Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985:

DOG CARCASS IN ALLEY THIS MORNING, TIRE TREAD ON BURST STOMACH. THIS CITY IS AFRAID OF ME. I HAVE SEEN ITS TRUE FACE.

[dipsydoodle]

56. Good taste.

[Tace]

46. 'A screaming comes across the sky.'

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon, 1974

[ZombieHorde]

51. "The most merciful thing in the world,

I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." -- H.P.Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

[thucythucy]

52. "We were about twenty miles outside of Barstow when the drugs began to take hold."

The opening to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is quasi--that is to say Gonzo--journalism, so maybe it doesn't qualify as "fiction" but it's still an awesome way to begin a book.

[longship]

54. "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;"

"even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House.

That first paragraph sends chills down my back every time I read it. A tremendous psychological drama.

[Earth_First]

55. "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold." nt

[The Stranger]

57. "Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for, without having done anything wrong . . .

. . . he was arrested one fine morning."

[Iwillnevergiveup]

58. "All happy families resemble one another,

each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina

[raccoon]

59. What's the first line of "The Cat in the Hat?" Anyone remember or have a copy handy?nt

[LeftishBrit]

60. The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day

[LeftishBrit]

61. I'll go with '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.

[DiverDave]

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

Orwell.

Oh, and:
Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
Don Quixote