Friday, December 20, 2024

Ten of the most iconic first sentences

Here are ten of the most iconic and impactful first sentences from novels, celebrated for their literary significance and memorable introductions:

 1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
– A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

 2. “Call me Ishmael.”
– Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

 3. “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 (1813)

 4. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877)

 5. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
– The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

 6. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
– 1984 by George Orwell (1949)

 7. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
– Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)

 8. “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
– Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

 9. “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.”

– The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925)

 10. “Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.”
– The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)

Each of these first lines sets the tone for the rest of the novel, sparking curiosity and drawing readers into the story. 

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