What Is The Best Ever Opening Line Of A Book You Have Read?

[Stargazer]

It was the best of times; it ws the worst of times.

[queenofmean]

I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life.

OR

This is the story of what a Woman can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.

OR

They looked like the Perfect Family.

[murraymints]

The Rebecca one for me too...!...that Mrs Danvers...gggrr.....

[tonyav]

Mmmmm, interesting character though, don't you think minty.

[nungate]

It was the day my grandmother exploded.


The Opening line of The Crow Road by the late Iain Banks

[murraymints]

Loved the old black and white film of Rebecca too...so atmospheric and creepy !

[queenofmean]

I preferred the film to the book and god I still hate Mrs Danvers!

[tonyav]

If that's the one with Laurence Olivia (sp), excellent film.

[WyeDyed]

Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.

[murraymints]

That's the one tone Larry Olivier and Joanne fontaine...judith Anderson as Danvers ....

[murraymints]

Joan....predictive thingy again ¡

[tonyav]

Yes I thought so, minty.


Anyhoo heres mine.
I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Wuthering Heights.

[Ellipsis]

Full quote from the OP (A Tale of Two Cities) is quite special:

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.

[Wharton]

Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know. I had a telegram from the home: 'Mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.' That doesn't mean anything. It may have been yesterday.

The Outsider by Albert Camus

[viv38]

The first line from Rebecca is brilliant (as several have already mentioned). One I particularly like was from Terry Waites' autobiography which started with "My Mother took me by the hand ...... " It evoked memories of my Mum doing just that and I found it extremely moving.

[mikey4444]

I have always liked this, from A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas :::

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

[emmie]

i would go along with the one from Pride and Prejudice, a favourite book

[elliemay1]

The first one I thought of was Manderley. The Outsider (L'etranger) brings back memories of A Level French.

[Zeuhl]

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers