100 Best Opening Lines from Novels

40. For a long time, I went to bed early. —Marcel Proust, Swann's Way (1913; trans. Lydia Davis)


Sure glad to know she went to bed early lol

 

I am Sam.

 

"Howard Roark laughed."

How was that left off the list?

 

DEEZ NUTZ-
TMac640 an autobiography

 

Its a He.

 

"As the motley crew of roughians converged around my Luxury Sport Utility Carriage, I kissed my biceps in anticipation of the terrible fury I was about to unleash..." - Conquests of the Conquistador Vol 3 (Featuring a foreword by Charles Norris)

 

Bwah!!! Too good!!!

 

38. All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

i just started reading this book. since its set in germany, i meant to read it whilst i was traveling over there last month, but never got to it.

 

one of the books i'm working on starts like this:

I am scanning the eyes of the three people I hate the most. By the time this night is over: one will try to kill me, one will try to save me, and the other will die.

 

I don't know if these are "best opening lines" but they are all from books that I've enjoyed. Anyone care to guess which books they are from?

"Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego."

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit."

"It was a beautiful morning at the end of November."

"I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up."

"Let me begin with Armenia."

 

Would that be "On The Road"-Jack Kerouac?

 

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Highly recommended, especially if you're into post-civil war black culture and politics.

 

The night was humid.

 

when in rome.

 

Definitely. Required reading in senior english back in high school. Loved it and remember it to this day.

 

Invisible Man -- I might have to pick that up then...

thanks for the rec

 

I don't really love the rankings, but I have always been most partial to:

31. I am a sick man . . . I am a spiteful man. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864; trans. Michael R. Katz)

Although I don't like the translation used for this list.

Proust is also very good.

As far as adding something that is not on the list...I think, considering the context of the rest of the book this is quite good:

"May I, monsieur, offer my services without running the risk of intruding?" -Albert Camus, The Fall

 

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

 

Good choice. That's also one of my favorite ending sentences as well.