First lines fascinate me. I try to work out what makes a
decent first line and what makes an exceptional one.
I suppose a decent first line draws the reader into the
book. It captivates the imagination and entices the us to read on. When I first
read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as a
teenager, I was totally captivated by the opening sentence. By the end of the
first paragraph I felt as deeply into the story as I usually am by the fourth
chapter.
“Last
night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron
gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was
barred to me.”
But what makes an opening exceptional? Surely it must do
more than draw us in, it must set the tone for the entire story and indicate the
story-style. Even more than that, I find the exceptional first lines live with me.
My favourites have become well-known family sayings.
I offer you a few of my favourites in no particular order. I
leave it to you to decide if they are decent or even exceptional. I wonder how
many you know. If you get eight or nine out of ten I’ll take my hat off to you.
If you get all ten, I will eat my hat!
1.
“It is a truth
universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife.”
2.
“The past is
another country, they do things differently there.”
3.
“My father had a face that
could stop a clock.”
4.
“You better not never tell
nobody but God.”
5.
“There was a
man who had a cross and his name was Macauley.”
6.
“I returned
from the city about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty much disgusted
with life.”
7.
“Now
that I’m dead, I know everything.”
8.
“I
write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
9.
"When the doorbell rings at three in
the morning, it’s never good news."
10.
‘It was a
bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’
If you have a
favorite, I’d be interested to know what it is.
ANSWERS
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Go-Between – L P Hartley
3. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
4. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
5. The Shiralee – D’Arcy Niland
6. The 39 Steps – John Buchan
7. The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood
8. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
9. Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz
10.
Nineteen-eighty-four – George Orwell
