Famous First Lines

Famous First Lines


1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. — Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

2. The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. — Jaws by Peter Benchley

3. Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.— Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

4. I was leaning against a bar in a speak-easy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me. — The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

5. Indian summer is like a woman. Ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle, she comes and goes as she pleases so that one is never sure whether she will come at all, nor for how long she will stay. — Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

6. All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion. — Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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. — The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

8. Sunday 1 January: 9 st (but post-Christmas), alcohol units 14 (but effectively covers 2 days as 4 hours of party was on New Year's Day), cigarettes 22, calories 5424. Noon. London: my flat. Ugh. The last thing on earth I feel physically, emotionally or mentally equipped to do is drive to Una and Geoffrey Alconbury's New Year's Day Turkey Curry Buffet in Grafton Underwood. — Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

9. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.— The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

10. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. — Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J. K. Rowling