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From Jane Eyre: “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”

I love how the author drops you right into the story.

From Snow Falling on Cedars: “The accused man, Kabuo Miyamoto, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms placed softly on the defendant’s table–the posture of a man who has detached himself insofar as this is possible at his own trial.”

I’m not a big fan of adverbs, but I do really like the word softly here as it seems such a contrast to the rest of the sentence.

One of my favorite first lines, to this day, is:

Mick Brannigan’s daddy only gave him one piece of advice when he was growing up, but he gave it to him on a number of occasions. He said, “Son, you need to sit down and shut up.” (the great turning points in Mick’s life almost always hinged on things he wished he hadn’t said, and yet it still came as a surprise to him when something he said got him dragged off the top of a twelve-story building and cost hi his job…)

Oops — just realized I provided the wrong link earlier. (This is why I rarely post blog comments in the a.m.) Here is the CORRECT link to “25 of the Best Opening Lines in Literature” …

http://greglevin.com/scrawl-space-blog/the-best-opening-lines-in-literature

Loved a lot of these stories; and some I’ve read more than once. Thank you for these thoughts and insights.

One of my favorite opening lines is from The Gunslinger: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” I wouldn’t call it clever, but it stuck with me.

The first line from Rebecca is my favorite too.