Sometimes you know from the first page or even paragraph that you’re going to love a book. These are some of my favourite beginnings.
- Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again. – Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
- Marley was dead, to begin with. – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
- Ten days after the war ended my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. – The Blind Assassin, Margaret Attwood.
- The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. – The Secret History, Donna Tartt.
- If you really want to hear about it the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like…and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. – The Catcher In the Rye, JD Salinger
- Hale knew before he had been in Brighton three hours that they meant to murder him. – Brighton Rock, Graham Greene.
- It was the day my grandmother exploded. – the Crow Road, Iain Banks
- Isabel Dalhousie saw the young man fall from the edge of the upper circle, from the gods.
- There was nobody there to meet him. – The Outcast, Sadie Jones
- 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, Sylvia Plath
Which opening lines have made you determined to read a book?
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