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Thank you for your patience!
- M.W.
Thank you for your patience!
- M.W.
Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
The first sentence of any novel has to grab the reader, or they may not keep reading.
Here is a memorable one from Tim Dorsey's Pineapple Grenade.
A prosthetic leg with a Willie Nelson bumper sticker washed ashore on the beach, which meant it was Florida.
Here is a memorable one from Tim Dorsey's Pineapple Grenade.
A prosthetic leg with a Willie Nelson bumper sticker washed ashore on the beach, which meant it was Florida.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
I opened my eyes to see the rat taking a piss in my coffee mug.
Warren Ellis, Crooked Little Vein
Warren Ellis, Crooked Little Vein
New York and Chicago were all in with respect to their sanctuary status — until they were hit with the challenge of actually providing sanctuary. In other words, typical liberal hypocrisy.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
The idea really came to me the day I got my new false teeth.
Coming Up For Air
George Orwell
Coming Up For Air
George Orwell
- moldyoldie
- Posts: 1902
- Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:04 am
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Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
One of my favorites:
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
-Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
-Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
"The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure."
- Sydney J. Harris
- Sydney J. Harris
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
From one of my favourite American writers of the 20th century, Erskine Caldwell.
The Journeyman 1935
The mud-splattered rattletrap of an automobile rolled off the road and came to a dead stop beside the magnolia tree.
The Journeyman 1935
The mud-splattered rattletrap of an automobile rolled off the road and came to a dead stop beside the magnolia tree.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
The Catcher In The Rye -- JD SalingerIF 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.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
First paragraph from a book by my favorite crime author.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
New York and Chicago were all in with respect to their sanctuary status — until they were hit with the challenge of actually providing sanctuary. In other words, typical liberal hypocrisy.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
Bryce wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 12:38 pm First paragraph from a book by my favorite crime author.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Well, who is it?
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
The late, great Raymond Chandler.Turkeytop wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 4:02 pmBryce wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 12:38 pm First paragraph from a book by my favorite crime author.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Well, who is it?
New York and Chicago were all in with respect to their sanctuary status — until they were hit with the challenge of actually providing sanctuary. In other words, typical liberal hypocrisy.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
Bryce wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 4:04 pmThe late, great Raymond Chandler.Turkeytop wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 4:02 pmBryce wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 12:38 pm First paragraph from a book by my favorite crime author.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Well, who is it?
Of course. Nobody writes them like that anymore.
Re: Favourite Opening Lines From Novels
All these are from my favourite Detroit Crime Writer, Elmore Leonard.
Bandits 1987Every time they got a call from the leper hospital to pick up a body Jack Delaney would feel himself coming down with the flu or something.
Freaky Deaky 1988Chris Mankowski’s last day on the job, two in the afternoon, two hours to go, he got a call to dispose of a bomb.
Unknown Man 89 1977A friend of Ryan’s said to him one time, “ Yeah, but at least you don’t take shit from anybody.”
Road Dogs 2009They put Foley and the Cuban together in the back seat of the van and took them from Palm Beach County jail on Gun Club to Glades Correctional, the old redbrick prison at the south end of Lake Okeechobee.
Killshot 1989The Blackbird told himself he was drinking too much because he lived in this hotel and the Silver Dollar was close by, right downstairs.
Swag 1976There was a photograph of Frank in an ad in the Detroit Free Press and showed all the friendly salesmen at Red Bowers Chevrolet.