“15 Famous Opening Lines from across Literature” by Forbes

Forbes came up with the article entitled “15 Famous Opening Lines from across Literature”

Here are 15 famous opening lines from across literature listed by Google Search.

1. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

2. "It was a dark and stormy night..." - Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

3. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

4. "Call me Ishmael." - Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

5. "It was the day my grandmother exploded." - The Crow Road by Iain Banks.

6. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." - 1984 by George Orwell.

7. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

8. "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

9. "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

10. "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.

11. "Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again." - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

12. "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure." - The Stranger by Albert Camus.

13. "It was a pleasure to burn." - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

14. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.

15. "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." - The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

I personally picked The Stranger by Albert Camus. What about you guys? Leave your thoughts here. As Richard Hauken pointed out, 3 and 7 in the above list are repeats.

Opening lines across literature 15. “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 (1813)

The following is actually listed by Forbes.

15. “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 (1813)

14. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”—I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)

13. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) 3:12

12. “They shoot the white girl first.”—Paradise by Toni Morrison (1997)

11. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”—Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878)

10. “All this happened, more or less.”—Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

9. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”—Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915)

8. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”—Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)

7. “Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.”—Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

6. “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (1971)

5. “Call me Ishmael.”—Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

4. “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 (1963)

3. “It was a dark and stormy night.”—A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962)

2. “I am an invisible man.”—Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)

1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”—A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)