Call Me Ishmael: the 100 Best Book Opening Lines
This list is, of course, subject to debate! I for one cannot stand James Joyce. Oh, here, let me give you the top 3 novel openings. I approve of the first two, though I think the opening of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities should have ranked higher than Gravity's Rainbow.
1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
For the record, I don't think Salinger belongs on this list. Holden Caulfield is a loser! Also, there are far too many 20th-century books in this list.
1 comment:
Really? "Call me Ishmael" is the top novel opening? That doesn't even make me curious about the rest of the story. "Yeah, mate, call me Lumpy."
On the other hand, the Austen opening is brilliant. Of course, I've read the book and so I view the opening line through the prism of the rest of the book. It couldn't have started better, knowing how it ended.
"A screaming ..." makes me curious. What is happening? That's a good opening line.
And the opening to A Tale of Two Cities is better than any of the above, in my opinion. It is funny and intriguing all on its own, even if you haven't read the rest of the book.
I wonder if the best opening lines were chosen through the prism of knowing what the rest of each book holds, or if they were chosen for their quality solely as opening lines. I suspect the former.
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