Best first paragraphs
Among first sentences in novels, the beginning of Pride and Prejudice is hard to beat.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Seeking to cheer myself up after the Obamacare debacle, I began thinking about first lines and paragraphs in books. Some of my favorite novels have unremarkable beginnings. In fact, one of my absolute favorites, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, starts with a sentence that positively repelled me at first:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
Oh no, I thought, "Bilbo Baggins of Bag End"? "Eleventy-first birthday"? What is this, baby talk? What's next, Lollipop Lane?
Fortunately, I stuck with it. For those who haven't read it yet, it gets better in the second chapter and goes up from there.
But a good beginning can really sell the book--quite literally in my case a couple of days ago when I chanced upon the beginning of C.J. Box's thriller, Savage Run:
On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activist Stevie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.
What about you? What are your favorite first lines or paragraphs in books?
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
I finally read Moby Dick a couple of years ago. It was good, maybe great. I doubt I'll re-read it, but it has some individual lines that really soar.
"Call me Ishmael" is a great first line.
This doesn't qualify as a first line, but it is in the first paragraph:
Who, among us, has not been in the midst of "damp, drizzly November" of the soul? I just love that line.
Re: Best first paragraphs
Thank you!
Mar '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
May '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
Are we forgetting the "WORLDS BEST" author? Snoopy always started his novels with, "It was a dark and stormy night."
Sep '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
Cornelius Julius Sebastian: I'd have to go with Moby Dick...
"...Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." · 17 hours ago
As Tabula Rasa says in a later comment, "damp drizzly November in my soul" is a great description. In fact, it describes my soul after the Obamacare verdict rather well. Which is why I should get to sea--or more precisely, the air--as soon as I can. A bit of landing practice at the local airport will concentrate my mind on cheerier things.
Sep '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
You're welcome! As I said in the post, that beginning literally sold the book to me. I read it as an excerpt on my Kindle Reader app on the iPad, and soon thereafter went to amazon.com and hit the Buy button. The book lived up to its beginning and more.
Aug '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
"The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." William Gibson, Neuromancer
May '12
Re: Best first paragraphs
William Gibson definitely has a way with prose. The denouement of Count Zero stayed with me for years. 'Scuse me a sec while I look this up... Here we go:
In early Gibson, the artificial intelligences (intelligentsia?) are almost more alive than the protagonists. Sorry, off topic, but I hadda.
May '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
How can any Ricochet member not mention the Bulwer-Lytton contest held every year that San Jose State holds each year. It's "a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."
This year is its 30th anniversary. The entrants will keep you in stitches; the winners are brilliant.
Contest winners by year (a "Lyttony" of Grand Prize Winners). Have fun!
Edited on July 2, 2012 at 9:56pmNov '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
From David Copperfield by Charles Dickens:
The actual title of the book is The Personal History and Exprience of David Copperfield, the Younger. In the words of Forrest Gump... my favorite book.
Jul '12
Re: Best first paragraphs
"Where the wagons stopped we built our homes, making the cabins tight for the winters coming. Here, in this place we would build our town; here, we would create something new"
Louis Lamour's Bendigo Shafter. Been a couple decades, but i think that's how it goes.
Jun '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
From Texasville, by Larry McMurtry (Last Picture Show, Lonesome Dove etc etc)
"Duane was in the hot tub, shooting at his new doghouse with a .44 Magnum."
Mar '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
Sep '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
One of my all time favorite lines is the opening of Gibson's cybernoir classic, Neuromancer:
Ironically, in these days of HDTV, young people will never see the color he's describing.
Edit: I didn't notice that Misthiocracy had already mentioned this one.
Edited on July 2, 2012 at 11:36pmMar '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
This one made me fall out my chair years ago when I came across it, even today it can still get a chuckle from me:
Aug '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
Richard Foster, a Quaker theologian and author, pens wonderful books with wonderful opening sentences.
"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people." from Celebration of Discipline.
"Contemporary culture is plagued by the passion to possess." from Freedom of Simplicity.
Sep '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
In a village in La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to recall, not long ago there lived an hidalgo, one of those with a lance on its rack, an old shield, a bony nag, and a racing greyhound.
And for those who would enjoy the original:
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
If your only acquaintance with Don Quixote is through Man of La Mancha, you have not met Don Quixote.
Sep '11
Re: Best first paragraphs
tabula rasa:
I also love the first line toOne Hundred Years of Solitude:
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the only example I have personally read of enjoyable fiction written by a communist.
Jul '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
-- Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield
Jul '10
Re: Best first paragraphs
Bernardo
Who's there?
Francisco
Nay, answer me, and unfold yourself.