A great sentence
“T[he] telephone and the PC are ubiquitous desk mates, separated by a few inches and about a century.”
I remember sitting in a classroom while my teacher explained how to write the basic 5 paragraph essay. She advised to start out with a sentence that grabbed the reader’s attention so that they would continue to read the rest of what you wanted to communicate. First lines of famous novels include:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen. Here is one of her most famous opening lines from Pride and Prejudice:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Unfortunately, I live in a small San Francisco apartment and my humble library is boxed up and in storage at my parents house. So, I had to google these quotes to reproduce them verbatim. I found this site which is a little quiz to see how many famous first lines you know. Check out foldedspace.org and see how many you know.
So, if you have read to this point in this entry, you are probably wondering, but where did she find the opening quote? The answer—The NY Times of course! You may find this sentence at Internet Phones: Please Wait for the Next Available Opportunity . I love that an article about evolving technology is written by an author who takes such care to craft such an opening sentence.
Let me know if you have found a good sentence lately (opening or otherwise).
June 4th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
I read the first line quotes but did not know any other for certain, though a few sounded familiar….I did, however, find the article about roadside weeds fascinating on the foldedspace website. Did you know that Canby is across the river from Wilsonville in Oregon?
June 4th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Sarah! What are you doing online and checking my blog? Are you my first bleeder? (Is that how you spell it?) For those of you who don’t know, Sarah is my wonderful Oregonian friend who has awful insomnia and reads more than any other bookworm I have met. We exchange books whenever we can and the bleeder comment is from the recent book Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. Another good read when you need a hearty laugh.
June 4th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Sadly, I only caught two of the quotes - one because my wife has been educating me on all topics of Jane Austen, the other because I’ve seen Fight Club enough times to know a quote from it (book or movie) when I read it.
Eventually, I’m going to have to lock myself in a room with a book and see if I can actually come out alive having read it.
June 5th, 2006 at 12:05 am
beautiful first lines. beautifully written article.
as for that amazing opening line from the Internet Phones article, i wouldn’t expect anything less from the NYtimes!
here are a few first lines that i have enjoyed for various reasons such as wit, clever syntax, meaning:
“walking came from Africa, from evolution, and from necessity, and it went everywhere, usually looking for something.” -The Uphill Road to Grace, an essay by Rebecca Solnit
“one summer afternoon, Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.” -The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
“ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board; for some they come in with the tide” -Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
if i stumble across anything good, i’ll post it here. now how about an article that features some good LAST lines?
June 5th, 2006 at 12:07 am
oops, i didn’t even realize that i cut and pasted too many break lines in my previous post. sorry about that!
June 5th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Great comments Kellie! I love your quotes! I am embarrassed to confess that Their Eyes Were Watching God has always been on my “to read” list, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Man, why do I have to go to work? There are so many good books to read!
June 5th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Okay…I think Kellie has offically read way more good lines than me…not that it is a competition but Kellie deserves some credit for being HIGHLY literate! I knew there was a reason I liked you when I met you….PJ, I totally missed the fight club line until I re read it! What a great movie….and a book I should read….Leah, I am a proud bleader!
June 5th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Sarah-
Thank you for your compliments! However, i cannot take credit to any of it because i haven’t read a darn book in a LONG time. Those lines were from novels I read a year or two ago. I will sadly admit that coming home after a long day of pushing pixels (graphic design) on a computer screen really takes its toll…
On the other hand, I have heard that you are a voracious reader. I am envious of your stamina!
Leah-
Their Eyes were watching God is a beautiful, heart breaking story about the strength of a woman in the time of slavery. The novel is extremely dense with imagery and meaning in each sentence. It’s like eating the richest, most flavorful meal you can imagine (without all the evil calories.) in other words, it can be overwhelming at times but well worth it. I especially LOVE the author’s eloquence. Its like reading poetry! I have a copy of the novel so let me know if you want to borrow it at any time.
October 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Hi,
I am, Edward
there is a ton of stuff on here
this is my page:
http://TBJ4TfMkyr.spaces.live.com/