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First lines are what get a readers attention. It’s one of the first things you see when you open the book so it needs to draw the reader in.
For me, besides the cover, it can really turn me off from a book. So a strong first line starts me, personally, down a good path.
Check out my 10 favorite literary first lines.
1.
“The seller of lightening rods arrived just ahead of the storm.”
– Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
2.
“Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”
– Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
3.
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
– Macebth by William Shakespeare
4.
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.”
– Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
5.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Absolutely love the first line of Something Wicked This Way Comes!! Also, “My suffering left me sad and gloomy” Life of Pi. Possibly not the most creative, but such a taster for what was to come. And not to forget “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (such great observation!) Jane Eyre.