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Favourite Opening Lines

Last post 09/04/12 at 13:38 by lindenlea, 54 replies
Post started by nick909 on 27/09/11 at 23:51

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  • nick909 avatar
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    Posted by: nick909 27/09/2011 at 23:51
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    What are your favourite all-time opening lines of books?

    Starter:

    "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."

    John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
  • Bethannie avatar
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    Posted by: Bethannie 28/09/2011 at 17:11
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     Where do I begin.......

     

    "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out...."

    Snoopy - It was a dark and stormy night...(Or just about any other of the great novelist Snoopy's works - they all pretty much start this way!)

    Seriously , if you haven't read Snoopy's novel (OK, Charles Schulz maybe should share credit!) then do so now! It's really short and just about perfect! 

     

    "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there"

    L P Hartley - The Go-Between

    A brilliant opening to an amzing book!

     

    "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13"

    George Orwell - 1984

     

     
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    Posted by: scobberlotcher 28/09/2011 at 17:20
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     "Last night, I dreamt I went to Maderley again" - Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier.

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    Posted by: wiemaranerlover 28/09/2011 at 20:52
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    "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."
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    Posted by: wiemaranerlover 28/09/2011 at 20:55
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    scobberlotcher:

     "Last night, I dreamt I went to Maderley again" - Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier.

    Mine too, in addition to Jane Eyre above.

    Not quite the opening line, but after the witches... "What bloody man is that?" The Scottish play.

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    Posted by: nutella 28/09/2011 at 22:03
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    How do people remember the opening lines of books? I only know the opening line of a Tale of Two Cities. I bet there are only about  half a dozen famous opening lines.
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    Posted by: nick909 28/09/2011 at 22:25
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    nutella:
    I bet there are only about  half a dozen famous opening lines.

    I bet there are a few more than that...

    Depends on your interpretation of 'famous' anyway.

    I'm interested in favourite, rather than famous in any case.

    Two more spring to mind:

    "The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him" - Catch 22

    "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." - One Hundred Years of Solitude

    Bethannie:

    "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13"

    George Orwell - 1984

    Great shout, Bethannie.
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    Posted by: Annie_Boxed_In 29/09/2011 at 00:05
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    "It was the day my grandmother exploded" ....... Iain Banks - The Crow Road
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    Posted by: nataliesennett 29/09/2011 at 21:54
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    When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. - To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee
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    Posted by: FrauSue 30/09/2011 at 13:55
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    One of my favourite opening paragraphs is "Lolita" - it's so poetic. 

    Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
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