Beginnings

[Guest]

Thomas Hardy wrote The Return of the Native, from which I quoted the opening sentence. P.

More from the ladies:

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. – Middlemarch

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 Bell Jar

A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!" – The Awakening

"Mrs. Dalloway said that she'd buy the flowers herself." – Mrs. Dalloway

 

[magichandslee]

Dark and stormy night?

Sometimes I could use that line and be happy.

That way tomorrow would have a chance at sunshine.

Lee

 

[minsue]

Currently my favorite opening sentence.

A long time ago I disappeared.

From Caucasia by Danzy Senna



- Mindy

 

[Dirt Man]

A long time ago, and in a galaxy far, far away...

 

[jeanne_d_artois]

It was a dark and stormy night - the full story.

The sentence is:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)


Jeanne

 

[destinie21]

I was always partial to :Now is the winter of our discontent.
Made glorious summer by this sun of York

and then

It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front odf my face, then I opened my eyes.

 

[jeanne_d_artois]

Actus Primus. Scoena Prima

Thunder and Lightning.
Enter three Witches.

1
When shall we three meet againe?
In Thunder, Lightning, or in Raine?
2. When the Hurley-burley's done,
When the Battaille's lost, and wonne.
3. That will be ere the set of Sunne.

Macbeth - First Folio 1623

 

[Guest]

One of the most brilliant, innovative and most profound opening lines in drama:

Who's there? - Hamlet


Perdita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

"C'e qualcosa che non va nel la leva de cambio!"

Very touching book.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

That last quote, is, as you probably recognised, from "Prismas' Small Italian Dictionary".

"There's something wrong with the stickshift!"

Sets the drama right from the start.

 

[raphy]

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"- William Gibson, Neuromancer. Probably the second most quoted line from that book, the most quoted being:

"Night City was like a deranged experiment in Social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button"

- which turns up 5 pages later.