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Literary Opening Lines

written by: eyez2k1ss
 
Typically, you need to read a few pages of a book to know whether you like it or not. Nevertheless, there are some outstanding works of literature that grab your full attention after the very first sentence. Have a go at guessing which book each of these remarkable opening lines belongs to.

Question 1:


"Call me Ishmael."
With the above line, the narrator of this 1851 novel by Herman Melville laconically introduces himself in the very first sentence, making it one of the best-known opening sentences in English literature.
"The Confidence-Man"
"Moby-Dick"
"Redburn"
"Mardi: And a Voyage Thither"

Question 2:


"There were four of us".
This is the beginning of a humorous story of 1889 by Jerome K. Jerome, which has some real-life characters and was initially intended to be a serious work, but ended up one of the most successful comedy books, with a humour that has proven to be fresh and witty even nowadays.
"They and I"
"The Diary of a Pilgrimage"
"Three Men in a Boat"
"The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow"

Question 3:


"It was a pleasure to burn."
This popular novel by Ray Bradbury, depicting a fictional world of the near future, is in fact an indirect condemnation of the present and a considerate warning about the forthcoming fate of human society.
"Vanity Fair"
"Fahrenheit 451"
"The Martian Chronicles"
"The Good Life"

Question 4:


No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their affairs they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."
This is the beginning of this Herbert Wells' intense and suspenseful novel, where the existence of the world and human kind has been put in jeopardy.
"The War of the Worlds"
"Little Wars"
"The Chronic Argonauts"
"The Invisible Man"

Question 5:


"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." is the beginning of this famous Dickens' historical novel, concerning the French Revolution and dealing with some timeless moral issues, such as guilt, treachery and patriotism.
"David Copperfield"
"A Tale of Two Cities"
"Great Expectations"
"Nicholas Nickleby"

Question 6:


"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression 'as pretty as an airport'."
As is typical for author Douglas Adams, this 1988 detective novel begins with a humorous and unusual line, grabbing attention from the very first sentence.
"Life, the Universe and Everything"
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
"The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul"
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

Question 7:


"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. "
Being one of the most controversial and widely disputed literary works of the 20th century, this novel by J. D. Salinger has been banned several times in the United States for inappropriate and immoral content.
"The Catcher in the Rye"
"Franny and Zooey "
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
"The Laughing Man"

Question 8:


"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Name the famous Jane Austen's novel, beginning with those words, concerning the problems of love and marriage, which was initially entitled "First Impressions�.
"Lady Susan"
"Sense and Sensibility"
"Pride and Prejudice"
"Emma"

Question 9:


"This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course."
In this Stephen King novel, these are the leading character and narrator's first words of the story of his life, and the unusual encounter which changes it forever.
"The Green Mile"
"The Eyes of the Dragon "
"Insomnia"
"It "

Question 10:


"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Arguably the best of his works, Tolstoy severely criticizes the highest circles of Russian society through this tragic love story of two of its members, one of them being Alexei Vronsky.
"The Power of Darkness"
"A Confession"
"Family Happiness"
"Anna Karenina "

 
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