Great Beginnings

[Houdini]

Novels or stories with great openings.

"DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher." Fall of the House of Usher by EAP

Houdini in Omaha

 

[doowopgirl]

Scarlett O'hara was not beautiful but men seldom realised it when caught in her charms as the Tarleton twins were.

 

[Dana Jean]

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Shirley Jackson

 

[Dana Jean]

A Tale of Two Cities -- loved this book.


"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

 

[Lily Sawyer]

"In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages."

Perfume - Patrick Süßkind

 

[Lily Sawyer]

Scarlett O'hara was not beautiful but men seldom realised it when caught in her charms as the Tarleton twins were.

I love this opening sentence and the book. Fabulous work.

 

[Grandpa]

Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades’ dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done.

 

[Lily Sawyer]

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

 

[Lily Sawyer]

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

 

[Kurben]

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again... I came upon it suddenly; the approach masked by the unnatural growth of a vast shrub that spread in all directions... There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the gray stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

 

[Walter Oobleck]

i am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person i ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason i believe in god; i am a christian because of owen meany. i make no claims to have a life in christ, or with christ--and certainly not for christ, which i've heard some zealots claim...
--A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving Sometimes I don't capitalize words, more so when you hear the voice speaking, and when we speak we don't say capital O...wen.

 

[BeverleyMarsh]

MOTHER died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.

Albert Camus - The Stranger

 

[Walter Oobleck]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
The Gospel of John

 

[GNTLGNT]

...you gotta know where I'M going...

...the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed...

 

[Grandpa]

I'm in a Shakespeare mood.

"When the fair gold morning of April stirred Mary Hawley awake, she turned over to her husband and saw him, little fingers pulling a frog mouth at her."

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent


"Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting."

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury


"A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories."

Alduous Huxley, Brave New World


"The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm."

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes



Not Shakespearean in the title, but perhaps the shortest first line ever:

"Tom!"

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

 

[Lepplady]

They're out there.
Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
~ Ken Kesey

 

[GNTLGNT]

I'm in a Shakespeare mood.

"When the fair gold morning of April stirred Mary Hawley awake, she turned over to her husband and saw him, little fingers pulling a frog mouth at her."

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent


"Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting."

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury


"A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories."

Alduous Huxley, Brave New World


"The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm."

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes



Not Shakespearean in the title, but perhaps the shortest first line ever:

"Tom!"

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

...oh man, I need to get some Bradbury out again...I forgot how well he painted with words...

 

[Dana Jean]

...oh man, I need to get some Bradbury out again...I forgot how well he painted with words...

I love Bradbury.

 

[GNTLGNT]

I love Bradbury.

...I cut my teeth on Sci-Fi with Ray when I was but a tiny Giant...I have to revisit the worlds...

 

[Neesy]

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again... I came upon it suddenly; the approach masked by the unnatural growth of a vast shrub that spread in all directions... There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the gray stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

I love that book (and another one by her called "Frenchman's Creek")
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists