Opening Lines of Books

The opening sentences of a book can be stirring for me. Reading them invokes the feeling of wind rising up and sweeping past. Something is about to start, about to happen. I am entering a world that will gradually reveal itself to me. I have parted the curtain of vines and stepped into a new forest and I will not emerge the same.

Photo by Gonard Fluit on Unsplash

These are a few of the books and their opening lines that have moved me:

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men."

2. The Witches by Roald Dahl 

"A Note About Witches: In fairytales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairytale. This is about REAL WITCHES."

- Pretty much any book by Roald Dahl has a great opener.

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number 4 Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

4. Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Technically this is an epic poem, not a book)

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, stand like harper's hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest."

5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis 

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

6. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

“The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; Til he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said, “Bother!” and, “Oh blow!” and also, “Hang spring cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.

7. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."

What are your favorite opening lines? I would LOVE to hear them.