American Book Review has compiled a list of the 100 best opening lines in a novel. Here are some of my favorites.
8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
22. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. —Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
54. A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. —Graham Greene, The End of the Affair (1951)
64. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
78. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. —L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)
No comments:
Post a Comment