Lily Dooner's question got me thinking about great opening lines.
Phil Rogers quoted a cracker from JG Ballard. Excellent!
One of my favourites is JD Salinger's Catcher In The Rye:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
Orwell's 1984 is also mind boggling:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Anyone else have any favourite opening lines?
I have to say, though, I don't find first lines a good indicator of whether I'm going to enjoy a book. Several books I dislike have great first lines and some I love have distinctly lukewarm beginnings. Jane Eyre springs to mind.
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
It's amazing we all read on!
Yes, Austen really hit the spot with that line didn't she?
I agree The Trial is an awe inspiring work, but the opening doesn't work quite so well for me.
In 1984, I love the way Orwell followed up something as apparently innocuous as "It was a bright cold day in April....", with something as sinister and disorienting as "and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Straight away you understand that all is not right with the world. That the apparent familiarity of that cold, bright day is not as ordinary as it appears.
It is so stunning and so unsettling. Truly masterful.
With JD Salinger I enjoy something altogether different.
Here we have Holden Caulfield's voice talking to us immediately, We can envisage him straight off the bat. A precocious and observant, funny, child. It's such a powerful and effective voice and I find it astounding that Salinger maintained that voice throughout the whole novel.
That JG Ballard opener though .....wow! Now there's a book I HAVE to read :)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
It can't be beaten. Straight into the heart of the book before the first full stop. It is first line perfection.