First Sentences?

I am a great lover of first sentences in novels. I have many that take my breath away.



Here are some of my favorites.



'When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.' Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird.



"Sally." Stephen King - The Stand



"Last night, I dreamed I went to Manderlay again." Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca



'Novalee Nation, seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight - and superstitious about sevens - shifted uncomfortably in the seat of the old Plymouth and ran her hands down the curve of her belly.' Billie Letts - Where The Heart Is



"Call me Ishmael" Herman Melville - Moby Dick



"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." Albert Camus - The Stranger



What is your favorite first sentence? How did it make you feel about the read ahead of you? Pax - C

First Sentences?
In the book "Ahab's Wife" by Sena Jeter Nashund, it begins: "Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."



If you haven't read it, it's a really good book about a character that is only briefly mentioned in "Moby Dick," and tells about the life of this woman who was married for a brief time to Ahab. It has a lot of the same characters from Nantucket in it and shows how Ahab was prior to losing his manhood to Moby Dick.
Reply:All right, I agree and like all of the first sentences since each, literally speaking, likes shedding light into the narrations, characterizations, episodes, etc. that duly follow. Let me cite some from the books in my office:



As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis



Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me. Gunther Grass - The Tin Drum



Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. George Orwell - Animal Farm



It was Monday morning, Swaminathan was reluctant to open his eyes. R.K. Narayan - Swami and Friends



At the sunset hour of one warm spring day two men were to be seen, at Patriarch's Ponds. Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita



None of them knew the color of the sky. Stephen Crane - The Open Boat



The sun was beginning to fall from the sky into the white Nevada desert as Reno came up beneath me. Harold Robbins - The Carpetbaggers



We can go on for ever and, interestingly, they all illuminate for readers to sense or visualize something unimaginable to appear scene after scene.
Reply:Moon, glorious moon, full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy.



--Jeff Lindsay Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Reply:"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.- Charlotte's Web
Reply:there are those who would choose immortality over love
Reply:The magic in that country spread over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster dust (Housecleaners in that country earned unusually good wages). -Robin McKinley, Spindle's End



The rain was without beginning and without end. It pattered on incessantly, a drumming of impatient fingers. -Cecilia Dart-Thornton, "The Ill-made Mute" and "The Battle of Evernight" (the first and last in the trilogy both begin that way)



The beginning of Rebecca is also a favorite.



All of these beginnings drew me in because of the imagery. I had an instant picture in my mind that invited me to look closer. Odd, all these books are on my top favorites.
Reply:Okay I know this isn't what you want but my favorite sentence is the first sentence in my novel. I won't post it since you already know what it is. But I think it is my favorite because ever since that first sentence, I have steped into my own story. I live it now and I am glad for that. Now I am that much closer to seeing it on shelves.
Reply:Goodness that's a lot of first sentences. You should just make a book of first sentences. Anyway, here's one of mine. But it's the last sentence of the book, so does that count? Wait, don't answer that, I'm going to put it anyway.



"He craned his neck a little farther, observing the thing in the sky that reminded him so much of something in a folk tale; a Cyclopes, to be exact."



Okay I guess I'll add the first sentence too.



“AHHH, HELP, SOMEBODY HELP ME, OWWWWW, HELP ME PLEASE, ANYBODY…”



I like those.
Reply:Not all stories have an intriguing opening sentence, but there are quite a few that do.



My absolute favorite beginning to a novel has to be: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen) I knew from this beginning sentence that it would be a witty novel with a quirky sense of humor. I wasn't disappointed.



I too like "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." You know from the word go that there is some mystery attached to the story. You immediately want to know why the writer has only dreams of this place left to her.



Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind-"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were." Here lies the secret of Scarlett O'Hara's attraction. You want to know what charm she possesses, how she uses it, and what exactly is her character. The answer to all these things is hinted at, but you want details.



Little Women by Louisa May Alcott-"'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." You know from this first sentence that this will be a family tale. You also know, immediately, something about Jo.



"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. The title of the chapter-I Am Born, first draws the reader in. No one can EVER use those three words as a chapter heading or even the beginning of a book, without people saying, "You stole that from Dickens!" The first sentence lets you know whose story we are going to read as well as something about the protagonist's character.



Though it's a run-on sentence, the first sentence of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities tells you exactly what to expect in the novel. You know you'll find a story that gives you contrasts between good and evil; one that juxtaposes the highs and lows, the estimable and detestable. "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."



Addition: Dear Persiphone, I think YOU'VE won hands down! Is there any way you can vote yourself 10 points? :) Seriously, you are like a walking encyclopedia. I'm VERY impressed. I'd love to read some of your books...
Reply:those are all awesome....let's see, I also love...



"Children were always the worst." Michelle West, The Broken Crown



"Snowman wakes before dawn." Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake



"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin



"On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on." Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold



"It's confession time, Catamounts." Sam Lipsyte, Home Land



"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie." Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones



And there are so many more.

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