Monday, May 21, 2007

Best opening line to a story...

From Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis:
"As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin."
What is your favourite opening line to a piece of prose, poetry or drama?

4 comments:

byron smith said...

It is cold at six-forty in the morning of a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad.
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: - it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell

Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life.
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo…
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...

Andrew said...

Yes ... I had a feeling that Genesis would show up sooner than later. Nineteen eighty-four is a cracker.

Let me add three more:

I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.
The Diary of Anne Frank

Who's there?
Hamlet William Shakespeare

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

Philip Britton said...

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

Haven't read it (except for the first few pages), but a friend and I used it as an introduction to a talk on party drugs whilst in med school.

Anonymous said...

John Forbes' poem "Death an Ode"

“Death, you’re more successful than America/ even if we don’t chose to join you, we do”.