'Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again....'
Printable View
'Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again....'
I hereby officially curse this thread! :flare: :cursing smiley:
I read it just before going to bed last night and could not fall asleep to save my life, trying to think what my favorite first sentence would be...
*shakes her fist and mumbles words in an odd language*
I still cannot decide which one mine would be. Everytime I think of one I am going 'Ahhh, yess...' gooey for a minute or two... Till I remember the next book...
OK, I am leaving... Some serious thinking to do.
lets see, first line from Morgan Llwelyn's the hosre goddess was "the spirits walked tonight" that was one of my favorite, it was also the first paragraph
one of my favorites was anne micheals, from fugitive peices "time is a blind guide" after reading this i started up a philosophical conversation with my dad in the middle of the bangladeshi airport in which he stalked off saying he doesn't like to think that way...
my favorite paragraph, chapter in any book is "my mother is a fish" from faulkner's as i lay dieing
and my favorite ending "tis" frank McCourt from angela's ashes
"The day broke dull and grey." (from Maugham's "Of Human Bondage")
Actually, I wanted to put here the first sentence of Marquez's masterpiece, but it was already here :)
I like Maugham's style so much, anyway.
Wow its been a while since I posted here.
As for first lines, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." from the Gunslinger: The Dark Tower Series
Jonus
Just a line to help Scher remembering her fave first line ever :angel:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." :D
edited because mentioned spoiler.
NOOO - I havenīt read the last book yet! I have tried not to read anything in the thread "Favorite last lines" out of fear for something like this.
I wonder if this happened because Scheherazade cursed the thread? What did she say in ancient tounge? "Thou shallt look and behold a spoiler? "
AHHH CRAP... sorry. I'll edit the post so no one else is spoiled.Quote:
Originally Posted by Isagel
Jonus
YIKES! I was spoiled the second time around, by the words in quote. :( :( :( :(
Oh darn. Iīll take the quote away.
Sorry EAP!
I am very fond of this first sentence:
"Like many another wild and anarchistic wanderer of our shattered times, I spend a lot of time asking myself questions that are officially classed as "nonsensical" by the Cambridge custodians of linguistic analysis."
"Wretched is he to whom the memories of Childhood bring only fear and sadness."
H.P. Lovecraft's "The Outsider"
My all time, over everything, favourite Story...Ever.
For its boldness and audacity, I like this opening line from Susan Elderkin's Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains:
'When he moved to the mountains of Arizona and set up home amongst the giant saguaros of the Sonoran Desert, Theobald Moon developed the habit of getting up early in the morning, peeing in a glass, and knocking it back in a few quick gulps while it was still warm and fresh.'
I saw imthefoolonthehill post something from Fight Club, but they apparently only posted a favorite line, since the first sentence of FC is:
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die."
And it happens to be my favorite.. heh. I mean, what a blunt way to start off a book? I don't really remember any lines from books, usually, since I have a hard time remembering actual text from the book. I'll know the story and why I liked it, but I probably couldn't quote much off the top of myhead.
Some good first lines:
"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. Relax."
- Italo Calvino, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller.
"A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare to it now."
- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
"For whom is the Funhouse fun? Perhaps for lovers. For Ambrose it is a place of fear and confusion."
- John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
"The Grandmother didnt want to go to Florida."
- Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find
"My dear friends, I knew you were faithful."
- Andre Gide, L'Immoraliste
"All of this happened while I was walking around starving in Christiana - that strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him."
- Knut Hamsun, Hunger
"I will tell you something about stories,
[he said]
They arent just entertainment."
- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
"Since I cant tell this to anybody, I'm writing it, not just to sort it out for myself, but for someone nosy who'll rummage through my papers one day."
- Josip Novakovich, Salvation and Other Disasters
"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."
- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
"If you have a cold, you do not need to worry about reinfecting yourself with your lip balm."
- Bill McKibben, The Age Of Missing Information
"Ka-boom!"
- Joshua Clover, Madonna Anno Domini