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Round Table Knight
Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 5:23PM Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
For me it's "Who is John Galt?"
The MonBRO Doctrine
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 5:26PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
f324
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 5:26PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

Round Table Knight wrote:

For me it's "Who is John Galt?"


no that book's entire philosophy is overly simplistic and generalizes morality.
`
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:07PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times."
Giant Johnson
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:14PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

Round Table Knight wrote:

For me it's "Who is John Galt?"


Please explain why that is the best opening line of any novel.
Yarbles
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:16PM - in reply to ` Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening."
observating
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:30PM - in reply to Yarbles Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

Yarbles wrote:

"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening."


this
The Monkey's Paw
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:36PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
It was a dark and stormy night.
whales
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:38PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
call me ishmael....
Derby
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:39PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again"
Bar Fly
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:44PM - in reply to The Monkey's Paw Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

The Monkey's Paw wrote:

It was a dark and stormy night.


You are cutting it off. The full line for its true impact:

"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."

How about-

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
jack n
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:44PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
Once upon a time...
Also Ran
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:44PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"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 how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
Also Ran Again
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:49PM - in reply to jack n Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
•"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 Monkey's Paw
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:52PM - in reply to Bar Fly Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

Bar Fly wrote:

[quote]The Monkey's Paw wrote:

It was a dark and stormy night.


You are cutting it off. The full line for its true impact:

"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."[/quote]
Your cite is the first usage but

My cite was from the WWJacobs novel and that correctly is just
It was a dark and stormy night.
Stranger in a Strange Land
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 6:57PM - in reply to The Monkey's Paw Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith.
Hoser, eh
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 7:09PM - in reply to Stranger in a Strange Land Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment."

Particularly impressive when you remember that he wrote it with a live stadium audience watching him.
slow and steady
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 7:10PM - in reply to Stranger in a Strange Land Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
"When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only."-Walden
Avocado's Number
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 7:51PM - in reply to Round Table Knight Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
Jogger to be
RE: Best opening line in a novel 6/16/2012 8:03PM - in reply to Avocado's Number Reply | Return to Index | Report Post
The night joggers were out as usual.
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