Best First Lines

naomi24 | 08:28 Thu 28th Sep 2023 | Arts & Literature

91 Answers

Many readers can identify a book by its opening line, and Amazon Books have conducted a survey of the most recognisable, with Charles Dickens' 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' from 'A Tale of Two Cities' coming out at number one. I was surprised that Jane Austen's 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' from 'Pride and Prejudice' trailed at number thirteen and there are some there I don't recognise at all.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12563537/Charles-Dickens-Tale-Two-Cities-Britains-favourite-start-novel.html

What's your number one?

Looking For A Book From My Childhood.

Night Poem From Khandro (Thu.)

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ToraToraTora

here's another classic:

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.

Canary42

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, stood smoking a cheap cigarette on the back doorstep of Number Sixteen Hell Close.

Queen Camilla, by Sue Townsend

Canary42

TTT that sounds like Holden Caulfield (working from memory, I think I've got that right) in Catcher in the Rye.

naomi24

Question Author

Strange book that, TTT/Canary. Curiously written. I loved it - but a lot of people don't.

MargoTester

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents

naomi24

Question Author

Oh Margo! Little Women! Lovely, just lovely.

Hazlinny

"It was four-thirty p.m. Four-thirty on Friday, the 23rd of December,1938.*

London belongs to me ... Norman Collins

MargoTester

I loved it Naomi and the sequels, was cross when Jo didn't marry Laurie, cried when Beth died😢

Togo

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then take care that you first place him in his time: