"In a hole there lived a Hobbit." ;)
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"In a hole there lived a Hobbit." ;)
Magorian's novel is an excellent one for young teenagers. Wholesome. Time enough for decadence once your intellectual muscles are wiry and strong.
My favourite sentence from a book is actually not a first sentence but from the end of the third page of the book and has stayed in my mind for about ten years;
Framed in the doorway stood a man resembling an old umbrella forgotten at a picnic.
Its from a comic historical novel written by Robert Hogan and James Douglas called Murder at the Abbey Theatre
It's supposed to be a decription of W.B.Yeats as he enters the theatre. :)
Ah yes Yeats like a broken old umbrella - a good image. When I was wee I thought he had invented his lake Isle but there is such a place.
The first of my eleven above is from the brilliant James Purdy who is most certainly a decadent writer and probably proud to be so.
I thought it was a bit cheeky posting an Irish Quote- seeing as even i had difficulty translating it. but then again my irish is terrible!
Heres a first paragraph that made me laugh. (Hang her head in shame as she writes)
Whats my name? I don't even bother answering him, just reef open the glove compartment and hand him my licence through the window, roysh, and he gives it the once over and he goes, @this is a provisional licence,' making no effort at all to hide the fact he's a bogger. like he's actually proud of it. I go, ' Your point is?' and the way he looks at me, roysh, i can tell he wants to snap those bracelets on me and haul my arse off to Donnybrook.
Dont laugh its from Ross o'carroll Kelly;The miseducation Years by Paul Howard. :blush:
A bit cheeky? Gerron there's folk from all over posting here and I aint seen no banning on any tongue. Co dhiu - eadar-theangaich mi e. Airson na Phillistich bochd.
On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below. The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
I like that precisely chosen 'precipitated'
The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes, and the impression that at any moment the boys were likely to be away. - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Now what would these awful feminists read into that opening sentence?
Hey i was only teasing about being cheeky!
Anyway this was the first line the character i played in the medieval play mankind. i think its class!
I come with my legs under me.
This isn't a first sentence, but it is in the first paragraph or so:
"We were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."
-A Tale of Two Cities
Gee I knew you were teasing. I aint no humourless atheist my Irish web faery.
Hello everyone! I 'm a new member and a first timer. May I just request one thing? Why not make list of these first sentences opposite their titles especially the classic ones? Example: Hamlet - "______________________"
this isn't a first sentence technically, but get a load of these apples.
i was the shadow of the waxwing slain
by the false azure of the window pane.
now compare the above to:
brightly lit from above i am sitting in
my circular room, this is i looking up
at a sky made of stucco, at a sixty
watt sun in that sky.
my sources tell me that nabokov wrote pale fire as a tribute to vladislav felitsianov (?) hodesevich. the most difficult thing he's ever composed, nabokov is quoted as saying. the best, in my opinion.
I Know.Quote:
Originally Posted by ennison
btw... what did you say? you have proved that i should hang my head in same for not knowing my native language.:blush:
maybe i should go back to the land of my ancestors. 'i shall arise and go...'
This is from Charles Dickens' Hard Times.
( can I bend the rules a wee bit? Like a lead paragraph?)
This is my favorite lead so far-
Quote:
Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else would be of service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to the Facts, Sir!
I found it striking as well. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by toni
There are many sentences in this book which are really powerful.
'Now what would these awful feminists read into that opening sentence?'Quote:
The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes, and the impression that at any moment the boys were likely to be away.
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Bait?
Yup I guess it's my contribution to the energy crisis (Crisis? What crisis?) Random incendiary comments to produce warmth!
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Well that bit says - 'Anyway I translated it for the poor Phillistines'
The second one of the eleven is from 'Blood Meridian' An amazing novel. I prefer 'Child of God' though. Only just.
im going to have to agree with you there...Quote:
Originally Posted by ajoe
There is the start of Trevor's 'The Story of Lucy Gault'. Lee's image-packed autobiography 'Cider With Rosie' and novels by Gaddis, Auchincloss, Oates
"if i am out of my mind, it's alright with me, thought moses herzog"
saul bellow, herzog
''Scarelt O'Hara wasn't beautiful, but men seldon realised this when they were under her charm...''
Im reading ATLAS SHRUGGED NOW. It's definately a good opening statement because it is essential to the novel as a whole. Ayn Raynd is amazing.
"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo..." A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
I am trying to track down the opening sentence of "Butterfly" by James M Cain. van anybody help m?
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Superb!
"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..."
- A Tale of Two Cities
The thousand injuries of Fortunado I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed Revenge.
Poe's "Cask of Amontillado"
Clare: It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays.
-The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
It's dusk and the moon is full on a cold night three days after the meeting with the general, the towering spires of the monastery spiking through the purple sky, seeming to impale stars, planets and full constellations...
Introduction to Part 3 - Darkness Chilled of a Short Story.
In your opinion, which is the most captivating first line you've ever read?
Yours, Daizee xx
Best first line is of course from Pride and Prejudice, which is my signature :D
Here's another one which I think is quite good:
"A woman can usually get what she wants from a man if she has a well-developed figure. So I've decided to stuff four handkerchiefs into the front of my dress tomorrow; then I shall look really grown up. Actually I am grown up already, but nobody else knows that, and I don't altogether look it."
(Annemarie Selinko - Désiréé)
"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash."
Crash - J.G. Ballard.
My favorite first line ever comes from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston:
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. They act and do things accordingly"
Those are my favorite opening lines ever. What are yours?