The top 10 opening lines in literature

10) “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” – Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier

A haunting beginning to a gothic classic about love and jealousy, this line throws you in at the deep end and stays with you long after you’ve finished reading the book.

9) “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.” – The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

This line is memorable purely for how strange and unnerving it is, as is the book itself.

8) “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” – I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

As quirky and heart-warming as the book itself, this line really needs no other explanation.

7) “In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my head ever since.” –  The
Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

For me, this line captures the horrible, universal realisation that in retrospect things never turn out to be as good as they seem.

6) “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” – The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

This line is so haunting as it is not just confined to the page. It echoes the feelings of loneliness and confusion evident in Plath’s life, who committed suicide only a month before the book was published.

5) “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 Philosopher’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling

An opening line that will make you feel nostalgic every time you read it, this seems so innocent in comparison to the final showdown during the Battle of Hogwarts.

4) “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – 1984, by George Orwell 

This line perfectly sets up the idea that everything is not quite as it seems and manages to plunge you into an alien world without any explanation.

3) “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” –  Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë 

Although not as famous as the amazing ‘Reader I married him’ from the same book, this opening line immediately grabs your attention and throws you right into the middle of the slowly developing and claustrophobic world of Jane Eyre.

2) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” –  A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

More of a paragraph than an opening line (but still one sentence), this is how to make the opening of a book dramatic. Even if you don’t know the words, everyone knows the rhythm of these lines and I think that’s a fairly good legacy to have.

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 

The most famous, misquoted and frankly overused opening line in the history of books, a list like this wouldn’t be complete without the addition of this line. And it’s pretty much an unwritten rule that if you’re ever stuck for a great opening first line yourself, you can just make use of this one.

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