100 best first lines from novels

[lurkingdirk]

Think the list is right? There are some amazing lines in here. How many have you read? I have actually read most on this list.

http://nedhardy.com/2011/04/20/100-best-first-lines-from-novels/#more-5052

for example:

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 (1951)

 

[bustybbwlover]

i've only read 11 of those...apparently i'm not much of a literature buff cool list tho...it got bookmarked

 

[meesterperfect]

In my younger and more vulnerable years........I believed in lists.

# 1. Call me Ishmael. – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

Yeah, Melville blew me away with that line, I mean ,Wow.

 

[meesterperfect]

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/267358/its-awesome

 

[squallumz]

my favourite:

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

 

[blindedinchains]

I've only read 4 of them haha.
Glad "A Tale of Two Cities" is up there though.

 

[bahodeme]

I've read 9 in their entirety. There were other 6 where I saw the movie and decided to read the book, didn't make it to the end.

 

[kniferun]

dont really pay attention to the intro beyond being just an intro.

 

[catweasel28]

"1801.— I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with."

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

When Chili first came to Miami Beach twelve years ago they were having one of their off-and-on cold winters: thirty-four degrees the day he met Tommy Carlo for lunch at Vesuvio’s on South Collins and had his leather jacket ripped off.

Get Shorty

 

[Hot Mega]

"The drought had lasted now for ten million years and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. In this barren and desiccated land, only the small or the swift or the fierce could flourish, or even hope to survive."

 

[Atar554]

Haven't read most of them; but:

38. All this happened, more or less. – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Still one of my fav books.

 

[BlueBalls]

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.

My personal favourite.

 

[Hot Mega]

My personal favourite.

You should recognize the opening in post 11.

 

[BlueBalls]

You should recognize the opening in post 11.

Indeed I do, Sir. Indeed, I do. Excellent choice. :hatsoff:

 

[bustybbwlover]

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. - gotta have a fun one

 

[JayJohn85]

"The drought had lasted now for ten million years and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. In this barren and desiccated land, only the small or the swift or the fierce could flourish, or even hope to survive."

Wtf thats from lonely hearts? lol

 

[Hot Mega]

Wtf thats from lonely hearts? lol

No. Ask Blueballs.

 

[JayJohn85]

Reptilians is so last century....Its grays

 

[Patrick_S]

My favourite:

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 were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.