The 25 Best Opening Lines in Western Literature

[49greg]

From an old annual of a boys magazine, I think "Eagle":

"One wet and windy Wednesday, Walford and Cecil were wistfully wending their way Westward, when ...."

 

[R. Richard]

Originally Posted by Hypoxia View Post

I'm a Bulwer-Lytton fan and love the contests for the WORST first sentences in Anglish literature. But you truncated that opening.

Or R. Richard may have been thinking of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeliene L'Engle, in which "It was a dark and stormy night" is the opening line in its entirety.
[/QUOTE]

Actually, R. Richard was thinking of an opening line in Snoopy's always unfinished novel, after a suggestion by Lucy that he incorporate something from the age of
heraldry, "It was a dark and stormy knight."

 

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by Hypoxia

I'm a Bulwer-Lytton fan and love the contests for the WORST first sentences in Anglish literature. But you truncated that opening.

Oh come on, it's a brilliant opener:-
"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."

Talk about scene-setting in one lump!

 

[Hypoxia]

Talk about scene-setting in one lump!

Data dump. Oy. My faves in that regard are by Herbert von Kleist, author of Michale Kohlhaas, the source of Doctorow's RAGTIME. Some great starts:

THE MARQUISE OF O---: In M---, a large town in norther Italy, the widowed Marquise of O---, a lady of unblemished reputation and the mother of several well-bred children, published the following notice in the newspapers: that, without her knowing how, she was in the family way; that she would like the father of the child she was going to bear to report himself; and that her mid was made up, out of consideration for her people, to marry him.

THE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE: In Santiago, the capital of the kingdom of Chile, at the very moment of the great earthquake of 1647 in which many thousands of lives were lost, a young Spaniard by the name of Jeronimo Rugera, who had been locked up on a criminal charge, was standing against a prison pillar, about to hang himself.