Thursday Thirteen
(according to Pantagraph.com)
1. Call me Ishmael. — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
3. A screaming comes across the sky. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buend a was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)
8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
9. 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. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
10. I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
11. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble? Do-you-need-advice? Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard. Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)
12. You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
13. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Breon Mitchell)
Do you agree with this list of best first lines? I certainly don’t! One of my personal favourites is:
“Dying isn’t so bad; I don’t have to answer the telephone.”
(I don’t remember what book that is from - let me know if you know!)
What are your favourite first lines? Any of these?
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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October 25th, 2007 at 7:53 am
My favourite first line is from Dorothy Dunnett’s DISORDERLY KNIGHTS: “On the day that his grannie was killed by the English, Sir William Scott the Younger of Buccleuch was at Melrose Abbey, marrying his aunt.”
Happy T13!
October 25th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I haven’t read most of those, so I really can’t comment (yes, I have TWO degrees in English and I haven’t read most of the classics!).
My favorite first line is, of course, the one I wrote in Trevor’s Song. *grin*
October 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Sandra - Thanks for stopping by! That is an excellent first line.
Susan - I haven’t read most of them either… Blah.
And what would that line be?
October 29th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
One of my favorites is “All children, except one, grow up.” J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy, 1911.
I also like at the end of the first paragraph: “Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
October 30th, 2007 at 12:52 am
Those are excellent.
I prefer the second one, but those are both excellent.
Honestly, I’m wondering how this guy came up with this list.