Top 10 first lines in fiction

The Guardian ^ | 4-5-2023 | Liz Nugent

[Saije]

A good first line is not always necessary because who stops reading after one sentence? But it can be extremely useful in building expectations for the style and characterisation that will follow. While book jackets can indicate a broad genre, that line can define the subgenre.

The opening may establish the tone, character, location, era or season but it can also pull a reader into the realm of the story that follows, and often into the head of the protagonist or into an alternate reality. When we open a book, we are ready to embark on a journey. The starter pistol should propel us forward. In my experience, a great opening will also raise questions that needs to be answered. Who or why or how or indeed, wtf?

In my own work, I like to set the opening line in the aftermath of a major event. I write first-person narratives and the reaction of the protagonist to this event should give the reader a good indication of the type of character... To demonstrate, here are some of my favourite openings by other writers.

1. Breakfast Wine from There Are Little Kingdoms by Kevin Barry

"They say it takes just three alcoholics to keep a small bar running in a country town and while myself and the cousin, Thomas, were doing what we could, we were a man shy, and these were difficult days for Mr Kelliher, licensee of the North Star, Pearse Street."

A whole world and three distinct characters have been created in this one sentence. Our narrator is aware of the fact that he is an alcoholic, but does Thomas know that the narrator is? Does he know that he is? Where is poor Mr Kelliher going to find a third alcoholic to keep his doors open?

[DFG]

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”.

[Cowman]

“The battle to feed all of humanity is over”

We are talking fiction after all

[Mark17]

Good question. 😆😊

[Night Hides Not]

Saw your tagline, brought back memories of my tour in Germany long ago. Two years each at Hahn and Spangdahlem, I was in an Air Defense Artillery battalion...great assignment.

I was struck by the expectations for young officers. It seemed that unless you were a pilot, lieutenants weren't given much responsibility. Army lieutenants had the kitchen sink thrown at them.

As a Platoon Leader, I also had 3-4 "extra duties" to oversee, in addition to my Chaparral or Vulcan Platoon. Many spirited conversations in the Hahn O'Club...lol.

[ByteMercenary]

“Buck Rogers” ??? ;)

[Mark17]

I was struck by the expectations for young officers. It seemed that unless you were a pilot, lieutenants weren't given much responsibility.

It seems that way, since the USAF motto, is to fly and fight. My son wanted to be a nuclear weapons maintenance officer, but since the USAF was short of pilots, they only offered him pilot training, nothing else, so now, he is a pilot. 😆🤗

[linMcHlp]

1941 USAAC motto at Kelly Field, San Antonio, was literally Be of Courage and Honor

[epluribus_2]

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.)

[Night Hides Not]

I hear you, funny how the military does that. I was sure that I would enter the Army as a Finance Corps LT, as the Army paid for my degree in public accounting.

Nope...I was commissioned an ADA officer. Actually, it worked out well. The last job I had in Germany was Battalion Supply Officer. Made a small amount of money on the side, audited the books of the Spangdahlem AB Officers Wives Club.

[Sirius Lee]

Everyone references great literature, but what about beach bookery? The schlock from Lee Child, or Dean Koontz, or Edward Rutherford that you read because you don't want to watch television, but also don't want to have anything to think about.

"My name is Odd Thomas, though in this age when fame is the alter at which most people worship, I'm not sure why you should care."

[Claud]

I was hoping someone would mention the Dawn Treader! Absolute classic.

[Larry Lucido]

:-)

[Mark17]

I have been to Kelly, Randolph and was at Laughlin for 9 years. My son was at Randolph, for part of his pilot training.

[Larry Lucido]

Snoopy. One of literature’s greats.

[Larry Lucido]

Ah, Tolstoy, the great Russian writer. He was right up there with Yuri Testikov (published by Pendant).

[Larry Lucido]

“Call me Larry.”

Love it! “Thank you. We’ll call you when your order is ready.”

[FroggyTheGremlim]

“During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the Autumn of the year, as the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been making my way on horseback through a singularly dreary tract of country, when, at length I came, as the shadows of evening drew nigh, within sight of the melancholy HOUSE OF USHER.”

(Caps mine)

Poe

---

I hope I got it all and in the right order. I remember it from a classical English course I took as an undergrad.

Do they still study the classics in college?

[NetAddicted]

Read later.

[MayflowerMadam]

“expecting to see ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ (A Tale of Two Cities) or ‘Call me Ishmael (Moby Dick)’, “

Those were the first two that popped into my mind.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I just re-read the first few pages of "The Call of the Wild". Wow, I've forgotten what a great book that is and what a remarkable and inventive storyteller London was.

Thanks for posting that.