A Conversation for Ask h2g2
Favourite opening line to a novel?
redpeckhamthegreatpompomwithnobson Posted Sep 20, 2005
Except for the Marabar Caves - and they are twenty miles off - the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.
E.M. Forster's A Passage to India.
Favourite opening line to a novel?
smartkasese Posted Sep 21, 2005
1801-I have just returned from a visit to my landlord-the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
Wuthering Heights
Mr. Jones,of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.
Animal Farm
And here , perhaps one of my favourite novels of all time as well as it's author-
When I reached 'C' Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning.
Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Athena the Wise Posted Sep 27, 2005
lol! 
And I think the begining of A Clockwork Orange is great!
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Athena the Wise Posted Sep 27, 2005
"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk."
-From the classic children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Delicia - The world's acutest kitten Posted Sep 27, 2005
"That's torn it!" said Lord Peter Wimsey.
Opening line of Dorothy Sayer's "The nine tailors."
I find it beguiling in it's simplicity. In the book one learns a lot about change ringing and land drainage. 
Favourite opening line to a novel?
fundamentallyflawed Posted Sep 28, 2005
If you give a mouse a cookie!!! I remember that book!
Hurray for nostalgia!
"Today I ducked into a drugstore and bought a notebook-this notebook right here that I'm writing in. Clearly a momentous event."
-The Story of B, Daniel Quinn
Favourite opening line to a novel?
fiery opaleye - the happiest little Vegemite as bright, as bright can be Posted Oct 1, 2005
"The first place I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water full of frog spawn in which I nearly drowned. It would have been the first case of a horse drowned in frogs' spawn."
- "Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan"
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Yelbakk Posted Oct 3, 2005
"In the beginning, there was nothingness. And nothingness was neither empty nor indeterminate; it demanded for nothing but for itself. And God saw that it was good."
Amélie Nothomb: Métaphysique des tubes
(Not knowing any French, I read this book in the German translation, so what I posted here is my own translation (German > English) of an official translation (French > German), but I think I am pretty close to the original...)
Y.
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Random Mood Posted Mar 8, 2007
Anyone want to start this thread off again?
Favourite opening line to a novel?
Mol - on the new tablet Posted Mar 8, 2007
All my favourites have already gone!
Mol
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Favourite opening line to a novel?
- 101: redpeckhamthegreatpompomwithnobson (Sep 20, 2005)
- 102: smartkasese (Sep 21, 2005)
- 103: Athena the Wise (Sep 27, 2005)
- 104: Athena the Wise (Sep 27, 2005)
- 105: Delicia - The world's acutest kitten (Sep 27, 2005)
- 106: fundamentallyflawed (Sep 28, 2005)
- 107: fiery opaleye - the happiest little Vegemite as bright, as bright can be (Oct 1, 2005)
- 108: Yelbakk (Oct 3, 2005)
- 109: Random Mood (Mar 8, 2007)
- 110: Mol - on the new tablet (Mar 8, 2007)
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