Intriguing Introductions
David Lodge in the Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on various aspects of British and American fiction, writes, “However one defines it, the beginning of a novel is a threshold, separating the real world we inhabit from the world the novelist has imagined. It should therefore, as the phrase goes, ‘draw us in’” (4-5).
As I sit at my desk contemplating this quote, I can think of three beginnings that completely captivated me:
Estragon: (giving up again). “Nothing to be done.”
From Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
“Call me Ishmael.”
From Moby Dick by Herman Melville
“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.”
From Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Can you think of any?
posted by Anonymous | 12:35 PM
3 Comments:
Professor Southwick -
You sparked my thinking and interrupted my sermon prep (sad that I was doing the latter without the former I guess). Anyway - here are some of my faves. Later.
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
C.S. Lewis - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
"The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up."
G.K. Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill
"Elmer Gantry was drunk"
Sinclair Lewis - Elmer Gantry
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities (gratuitous, but classic)
"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."
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
Yes--I too love Salinger's ironic allusion to Dickens.
Sorry I am late in coming to this thread:
Best opening line to a novel is Stephen Lawhead, Byzantium:
"I saw Byzantium in a dream and I knew that I would die there."
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