The Best Opening Lines In Literature

May 28, 2023

Literature

Nesha Ruther

Writer at Bond & Grace

While you may not want to judge a book by its cover, you absolutely should judge it by its opening lines! The first lines of a novel carry a tremendous amount of weight. They are the author’s first and most powerful opportunity to capture the interest of their readers while simultaneously setting the tone for all that follows.

A bad first line can end your reading experience before its begun.

A good first line grabs your attention and gives some important context.

But a great first line; a great first line does all that while sending you that electric shock of excitement only powerful language can provide. We have selected some of the greatest opening lines in literature, that are not only a masterclass in word choice and sentence structure, but absolutely thrill us!

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” –Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Few languages can capture the contours of sadness quite like Russian, or in our case, English translations of Russian. Desire, faith, betrayal, and longing all come together and fall apart in this iconic novel. Anna Karenina is sure to leave you unhappy in your own, unique way.

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”–The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt’s satirical campus novel follows a group of murderous classics students at a small university in Vermont. Not a who-done-it or even a how-done-it, as much as a why-done-it, The Secret History is gripping from the first line to the last.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”–1984 by George Orwell

From the opening line of 1984, Orwell tells readers that something is fundamentally wrong in this world, and that wrongness will follow you all the way through. One of the great dystopian novels of all time, 1984 is even better when you’re not reading it for your high school English class.

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”–The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Somehow, this opening sentence tells us exactly what we need to know, while still inspiring more questions than it gives answers. Just like our protagonist Esther Greenwood, The Bell Jar’s opening line is disorienting, unsettling, and completely compelling.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”–Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

It is also a truth universally acknowledged that Pride & Prejudice has one of the most captivating and quote-worthy opening lines of all time. Whether you are a first time reader or revisiting these well-worn pages, Jane Austen’s masterpiece is as comical, relatable, and heart-warming as it was over 200 years ago.

“If you are interested in happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.”-- A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The line that launched a thousand miseries and raised a generation of young readers on mystery and mayhem, Lemony Snicket’s ASeries of Unfortunate Events remains a classic. Resourceful Violet, intelligent Klaus and chew-happy Sunny continue to inspire and entertain readers around the world.

Honorable Mention: Best Opening Paragraph

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”–The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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We can’t talk about great opening lines without talking about Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror masterpiece The Haunting of Hill House.

While more than a few sentences long, to cut apart this exquisite paragraph felt almost as sacreligious as not including it at all. Only Jackson can make semicolons so scary!

As great as these first lines undoubtedly are, don’t forget to read the rest. Who are we kidding, when it comes to these novels, once you start you can’t stop. Happy reading!