First Lines

Most of you know I teach English. I am passionate about literature, but I don't think I've ever shared any of my love for words with you. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and the first line of a novel is very important to me. So, I wanted to share some of my all-time favorite first lines from books I love.

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" (From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

"It was a bight cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." (From 1984 by George Orwell)

"The thousand injuries of Fortunado I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge." (From "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe)

"It was a pleasure to burn." (From Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." (From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - the whole introductory passage from this book is amazing)

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." (From The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger)

"It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened." (From The Giver by Lois Lowry)

And probably my two favorite ever, from two of my favorite novels ever:

"When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." (From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

And finally, though it's not a first line, here's one of my favorite passages from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:

"No sight so sad as that of a naughty girl," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
"They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer.
"And what is hell? Can you tell me that?"
"A pit full of fire."
"And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there forever?"
"No, sir."
"What must you do to avoid it?"
I deliberated a moment: my answer when it did come was objectionable. "I must keep in good health, and not die."

And if you haven't read Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, or To Kill a Mockingbird, you really should. They're all incredible.