Assorted thoughts

One of those wonderful questions that can never be posed too many times asks which novels have the best first lines? "Once upon a time" and "It was a dark and stormy night" are of course enduring favourites, though how many books actually begin with them is debatable, such formulas now being used for their ironic value rather than their content. Opening lines are irresistible for many reasons, yet - perhaps I'm stating the obvious - more often than not, even though the immediate effect of a great opener is to impel the reader to continue, it is the peculiar combination of words of that first single sentence rather than what follows which lasts in the reader's memory.(Indeed a stonking first line doesn't ensure the quality of the rest of the book; if first lines whet the appetite, three hundred pages of great first lines might leave you rather hungry. (sorry couldn't resist the metaphor)) Just five of my favourites (and one of the flaws of this game is that great first lines tend to be universal favourites, so I make no claims of originality!) are by Dodie Smith (quirky), Daphne Du Maurier (haunting), Sylvia Plath (bemusing), George Orwell (intriguing) and (oh dear, how predictable) Jane Austen.

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." (I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith)

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again." (Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier)

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York." (The Belljar, Slyvia Plath)

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." (1984, George Orwell)

"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, Jane Austen. Here's hoping that she's right.)

(And if you are interested in more first lines, the American Book Review published a list of its 100 favourite first lines here.)