What's your favorite first line?

[ennison]

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?

[Niamh]

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.

[brainstrain]

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

[ennison]

Gee I knew you were teasing. I aint no humourless atheist my Irish web faery.

[huck_finn]

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 - "______________________"

[chasestalling]

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.

[Niamh]

Gee I knew you were teasing. I aint no humourless atheist my Irish web faery.

I Know.

btw... what did you say? you have proved that i should hang my head in same for not knowing my native language.

maybe i should go back to the land of my ancestors. 'i shall arise and go...'

[toni]

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-

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!

[Pensive]

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-

I found it striking as well.

There are many sentences in this book which are really powerful.

[EAP]

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?'

Bait?

[ennison]

Yup I guess it's my contribution to the energy crisis (Crisis? What crisis?) Random incendiary comments to produce warmth!

[alhara]

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

[ennison]

Well that bit says - 'Anyway I translated it for the poor Phillistines'

[ennison]

The second one of the eleven is from 'Blood Meridian' An amazing novel. I prefer 'Child of God' though. Only just.

[x894565256]

lol, I was going to put this! But that's fine, I'll settle with Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle's first line instead: Call me Jonah.

im going to have to agree with you there...