{"id":2085,"date":"2011-06-28T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2085"},"modified":"2011-06-28T16:10:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:10:13","slug":"the-best-of-the-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2085","title":{"rendered":"The best of the first\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Disney film of the Moon Spinners with Hailey Mills started me reading Mary Stewart's books<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A comment from a friend of mine set me thinking about first lines.<\/p>\n

Great first lines.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 it feels like you will die if you had too.)<\/p>\n

My friend quoted Mary Stewart and I went \u2013 yes! She wrote the best first lines ever. Or did she? <\/p>\n

Mary Stewart practically invented romantic suspense as a genre. I love her books \u2013 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\u2026.<\/p>\n

The whole affair began so very quietly. \u2013 Madam Will you Talk<\/em><\/p>\n

In the first place I suppose it was my parents’ fault for giving me a silly name like Gianetta. – Wildfire at Midnight<\/em><\/p>\n

Nothing ever happens to me \u2013 My Brother Michael<\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose that my mother could have been a witch if she had chosen to \u2013 Thornyhold<\/em><\/p>\n

It was the egret flying out of the lemon grove that started it.\u00a0 – The Moonspinners<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Not every King would care to start his reign with the wholesale massacre of children.\u00a0 \u2013 The Last Enchantment.<\/em><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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!<\/p>\n

Of course \u2013 she’s not alone in writing great first lines. Daphne Du Maurier calls to me from the bookshelf\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca\"<\/a>
Rebecca, possibly my favourite book ever!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.\u00a0 – Rebecca.<\/em><\/p>\n

They used to hang man at Four Turnings in the old days \u2013 My Cousin Rachel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Other voices start talking – \u00a0and the list goes on\u2026.<\/p>\n

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black. – Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. – George Orwell, 1984<\/em><\/p>\n

It was the day my grandmother exploded. – Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road<\/em><\/p>\n

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.\u00a0 J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

OK \u2013 I’ll stop now.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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 \u2013 the magic never fades.<\/p>\n

Have you even sat up all night just reading the first lines of all your favorite books? I tried. I really did \u2013 but who could possible read\u2026\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.<\/p>\n

\u2026 and then close the book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-xD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}