A comment from a friend of mine set me thinking about first lines.
Great first lines.
Lines that hook the reader and drag you into the story so quickly that by the end of the first page, you would die rather than close the book (well – it feels like you will die if you had too.)
My friend quoted Mary Stewart and I went – yes! She wrote the best first lines ever. Or did she?
Mary Stewart practically invented romantic suspense as a genre. I love her books – and have read and re-read her many times. It’s impossible to put her books down, and when it comes to first lines – she is the master. Look at these….
The whole affair began so very quietly. – Madam Will you Talk
In the first place I suppose it was my parents’ fault for giving me a silly name like Gianetta. – Wildfire at Midnight
Nothing ever happens to me – My Brother Michael
I suppose that my mother could have been a witch if she had chosen to – Thornyhold
It was the egret flying out of the lemon grove that started it. – The Moonspinners.
Not every King would care to start his reign with the wholesale massacre of children. – The Last Enchantment.
Each line is very different, but each captives me. There’s threat and mystery and humour and horror. Most importantly, each line forces me to read the next and the next – until I am so immersed in the book I don’t notice the time passing. I blame Mary Stewart for many a very late night!
Of course – she’s not alone in writing great first lines. Daphne Du Maurier calls to me from the bookshelf…
Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. – Rebecca.
They used to hang man at Four Turnings in the old days – My Cousin Rachel.
Other voices start talking – and the list goes on….
To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black. – Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. – George Orwell, 1984
It was the day my grandmother exploded. – Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit
OK – I’ll stop now.
The more I think about it, the more great first lines come to mind. What makes them great? They transport me instantly to that other time and place – and whether it’s a child’s mind or a dystopian nightmare, I am instantly caught up in the story. And it doesn’t matter that I have read the book before, or read it ten times before – the magic never fades.
Have you even sat up all night just reading the first lines of all your favorite books? I tried. I really did – but who could possible read…
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
… and then close the book?