I was looking at the list they have for the 100 best first lines by American Book Review and I wonder what was their criteria for choosing them. It seems to me that the first lines they chose wouldn’t have much effect without having read the novel first or knowing the author before hand.
My favorite is the first line in 1984 by George Orwells.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
I’ve never read the book, but am quite familiar with it and definitely know the author. I think I’ll have to add it to my list of books to read.
Really, I’ve never paid much attention to the first line of any novel I’ve read, may be because no writer I’ve read has written one that grabbed me. Most of the first lines on the list don’t do much for me either. But this one from 1605 is pretty cool to read and provides a very straight-forward picture of the narrator:
Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
That line is from Don Quixote written by Miguel de Cervantes (translation Edith Grossman).
The following line didn’t do much for me at all until I saw that it was from The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, a book I’ve been meaning to read to understand what the hoopla’s all about.
“To be born again,” sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die.”
But the following line from one of Margaret Atwood’s books, Cat’s Eye, doesn’t do a thing for me as it states the obvious.
Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space.
Anyway, have a look and let me know what you think.
4 responses so far ↓
RuckyStrike // March 18, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Satanic Verses is an excellent read, full of contradictions and lines both philosophical and campy. I started reading it to see what all the excitement was about, but I ended up loving it for Rushdie’s playfulness with language.
I believe Rushdie quotes #78, which is one of my favorites.
I haven’t read Paul Auster’s City of Glass (#24), but I want to now.
Anil Siqueira // May 14, 2008 at 8:11 am
If you really are interested in first lines and the impact they make on the reader (to continue reding), perhaps you should check out Alistair Maclean’s novels - all of them. OR go to Jan Austen.
Anil Siqueira // May 14, 2008 at 8:33 am
Perhaps you’d take a look at some other such lists:
http://www.SaidWhat.co.UK/TheArticles/FirstLines
and First Lines
http://People.Cornell.edu/pages/jad22/
And RuckyStrike, many such authors (others who have learnt English, and speak it better than many ‘natives’, do the same: play around with words - their different shades, variations, combinations, etc.
Check out Arundhati Roy, Richard Crasta, ….
Don // May 14, 2008 at 8:55 am
Anil Siqueira, I fully agree with you in regards to the fact that people who speak english as a second language know it much better than native speakers. Or are certainly more aware of it.
English was my second language and I knew it better than most in my english class back in elementary and high school.
I have been away from my native language for such a long time that it, also, has become my second language.
It is true of anything. Someone moving to a new city will certainly know more about it than someone who has grown up in it.
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