The 10 Best Opening Lines in Book History, Ranked
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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that it is not ideal to judge a book by its opening line alone, but preferable to judging it by its cover. The first line is the proper way for an author to make a first impression, especially since they might not pick the cover, or if it’s an older book, the cover might differ depending on the version you're reading. First lines might well be even more important than final lines, since even great books are going to have people who give up/lose interest before they reach the end.
So, here’s a celebration of some of the very best opening lines in book history. If a book opens with a quote, or a preface by either the book’s author or someone else, that won’t be counted as the opening line. It’s the first line written by the author in the first chapter, or on the first true page, in the event that there aren’t any traditional chapters. Some of these are brief, while others are about a sentence or two, ultimately doing a good job at laying out – or at least hinting at – much of the book to come.
10 'House of Leaves' (2000)
The first line of House of Leaves feels like it might break that rule about one-off sentences being counted as “opening lines,” since the first "proper" page of the book does not begin with the statement “This is not for you.” You see that by itself on a page, and then the book starts once you flip the page. But that one line is still the start, and formatting-wise, it also establishes how some pages of the book will be unusual and sparse.
You’ve got pages later on with even less text, and then other pages with an overwhelming amount of text, and some of it's kind of unreadable. It’s a psychological horror/thriller book, among some other things, and it’s chaotic with its presentation and the places it’s willing to go narratively and thematically. In many ways, it lives up to that warning of not being “for you,” but “you” should give it a shot anyway, because even getting just 10% of what House of Leaves is going for is rewarding.
9 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949)
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” The day being described as bright is about as sunny as Nineteen Eighty-Four gets, because it’s all misery from that point onward. The coldness instantly mitigates the day being bright, but it’s the final part of that sentence which really stands out, and ensures the opening line here feels particularly iconic.
Something’s obviously off straight away, since clocks don’t strike thirteen, so the unusualness of this future is instantly established. It’s also nice that it fits with the book’s title, which is also a number, and then one more obvious thing worth pointing out is how the number thirteen is sometimes considered unlucky. Not much subtlety here, but there doesn’t have to be, because this opening line works wonders for the kind of book that Nineteen Eighty-Four ultimately is.
8 'Gravity's Rainbow' (1973)
This might be cheating a bit, because there’s a full-stop in this opening line, technically making it two sentences. It’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and the opening line in question is: “A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.” Even just “A screaming comes across the sky” feels plenty evocative, for what that’s worth, and those words allude to the “Rainbow” part of the book’s title, and maybe the “Gravity’s” part, too.
You can read into what’s being referred to in hindsight, once you’ve gotten through the chaotic nightmare that Gravity’s Rainbow is (it’s those things in a mostly good way), but it’s most likely war. War’s happened before, some kind of war is happening “now,” and then wars in the future will be worse and more frightening, so hard to compare it to anything, or comprehend. Speaking of being hard to comprehend: Gravity’s Rainbow.
7 'Moby-Dick' (1851)
Putting in “Call me Ishmael” here is expected, like talking about all-time great pop music and having to arbitrarily acknowledge at least something by The Beatles, but anyway, here’s “Call me Ishmael,” from Moby-Dick. You might never have read this rather lengthy book about a destructive quest for vengeance against a giant whale, but you’ve definitely read and/or heard those first three words at some point in your life.
The narrator tells you what to call him before he begins recounting his story, and that gets things feeling personal right away, which is important when Moby-Dick is about a rather personal pursuit. Ahab is the main character, or the one that drives most of the plot, at least, while Ishmael is still very much there, but more of an observer. It’s an attention-grabbing and punchy start to a novel that’s, by contrast, not so punchy, owing to its length and sheer ambition.
6 'Underworld' (1997)
In contrast to Moby-Dick and its opening line, Underworld isn't the sort of book you're guaranteed to find mentioned when the topic is great opening lines. It commences with: “He speaks in your voice, American, and there's a shine in his eye that's halfway hopeful.” Underworld is all about America, and also gets considered as a candidate for the “Great American Novel” title sometimes, so mentioning “American” right at the start feels very fitting.
Attention is grabbed, and then more than sustained for the opening stretch of Underworld, which is the best part of the whole novel. Labeling a voice or language as “American” does a lot to showcase where the book’s focus is going to be (U.S. history throughout the second half of the 20th century), and the part about something being “halfway hopeful…” admittedly, that feels more ironic than anything else, given how bleak and cynical much of Underworld ends up being.
5 'The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger' (1982)
Stephen King has a particularly strong track record when it comes to opening lines, with The Shining and Salem’s Lot being worthy of honorable mentions, and they're just books that came out within the first few years of King being a published author. His most iconic opening line, though, can be found in the first book of the longest series he’s written to date: The Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger opens with “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” That’s basically the plot of the whole book condensed into one sentence, and maybe even parts of The Dark Tower beyond the first book boil down to that. It summarizes and throws you right into the action while still feeling mysterious, and it’s overall an almost ideal way to begin an epic story that ends up being a few thousand pages long, spread out over seven main books.
4 'Pride and Prejudice' (1813)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” is easily the most famous line of Pride and Prejudice, and understandably so. Those are the main things the book explores: fortune and marriage and love, all right there from the very beginning. It doesn’t summarize the whole plot, and obviously, events transpire that show things to be a bit more complicated than that…
…But that is a great way to start the exploration of such things, even without it necessarily introducing a specific prominent character. Pride and Prejudice isn't for everyone, and it’s naturally going to feel old-fashioned in some ways, with it being two centuries old and all, but the strength and memorability of this opening line (and the way it can be referenced or parodied) are impossible to deny.
3 'Fahrenheit 451' (1953)
“It was a pleasure to burn” is the straight-to-the-point opening line of Fahrenheit 451, and it does reveal itself to be deeply ironic, or it’s insincere in a way that reflects how the protagonist is soon to realize the undesirability of burning. In the dystopian world here, books are burned rather than read, and firemen don’t seem to fight fires, and are instead the ones who do the burning.
Guy Montag is one of those firemen, and he ends up rebelling against what he’s been made to do, since it turns out reading is more pleasurable and all. Fahrenheit 451 makes a compelling argument for not burning books, obviously, in countless ways, but one of the biggest ways is being itself a great read. Maybe “pleasure” is a strong word when things are quite dark and intense throughout, yet it is certainly a compelling book, especially if you want to compare it to various other texts people are often made to read when they're young and still at school.
2 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' (1971)
You can judge by its title in this instance, because Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a great title (and the full title, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, is even better). Reading a little beyond the title, though, you also find yourself with the all-time great opening line of: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is responsible for The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger not having the best opening line that references a desert in one way or another. This is a perfect way to kick off what’s ultimately a strange and boundary-pushing book, not to mention one of the most surreal works that could technically be called non-fiction.
1 'Anna Karenina' (1878)
Leo Tolstoy didn’t seem too afraid of peaking early when he wrote Anna Karenina, since the first line – “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” – is just that good and memorable. Beyond what it does for Anna Karenina, as a book, it more or less summarizes what makes stories interesting or uninteresting: unhappiness. If every story was about a happy family, or a happy group of characters, those stories would probably all blend together.
There are lots of ways for a unit to be dysfunctional or struggling in some kind of manner, and so you get stories both sad/dramatic and humorous that deal with people having a bad time, in one way or another. Anna Karenina is a sprawling family drama, and there is indeed a great deal of unhappiness and turmoil explored throughout. You know what you're in for, though, thanks to Tolstoy starting things off in such a manner.
Anna Karenina
- Release Date
- October 6, 2012
- Runtime
- 130minutes
- Director
- Joe Wright
- Writers
- Joe Wright
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