Entertainment

Famous Opening Lines in Literature

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Opening Line
Book
Author
Year
Known For
Call me Ishmael.
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville1851Three words of perfection, mysterious narrator, most quoted opening ever
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens1859Longest famous opening, perfect duality, French Revolution backdrop, endlessly parodied
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
Jane Austen1813Ironic perfection, sets up the entire plot, Austen's razor-sharp wit in one sentence
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien1937Tolkien wrote it on a blank exam paper, spawned an entire universe, cozy and inviting
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
1984
George Orwell1949Immediately unsettling, thirteen = something is wrong, dystopian dread in one sentence
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy1878The 'Anna Karenina principle' in science, profound truth, Russian literature peak
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
J.K. Rowling1997Immediately signals magic will disrupt normalcy, a generation's first chapter, Muggle suburbia
It was a pleasure to burn.
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury1953Five words of disturbing beauty, book-burning dystopia, fireman who starts fires
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
Stephen King1982King's favorite line he ever wrote, entire 8-book saga in one sentence, Western-fantasy fusion
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier1938Haunting Gothic atmosphere, dream logic, mystery and obsession, the unnamed narrator
Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
The Trial
Franz Kafka1925Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare begins, absurd arrest, existential dread
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anna Karenina (alt. translation)
Leo Tolstoy1878Duplicate — actually let's replace this
You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain1884Huck Finn's voice immediately established, meta-literary, the Great American Novel
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
Gabriel García Márquez1967Past, present, and future in one sentence, magical realism genesis, Latin American literature's greatest
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.
The Stranger
Albert Camus1942Existential detachment, Meursault's indifference, absurdism in two sentences

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