100 Best First Lines from Novels

UniversalWolf said:
I don't understand how something like this merits the list:
37. Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. —Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
It's supposed to be a great opening line, which means it ought to have some meaning in and of itself with no reference to anything else. Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself? - it means nothing on it's own. I can think of 100 better opening lines than that. It doesn't even paint an interesting picture.

There are several on the list of a similar nature.

Imagine you're a woman. She's buying flowers! It instantly makes you interested. The fact that she says she will buy them herself surely indicates that there is to be a wedding or some other joyous occation. You're almost crying already.
 
Dead Guy said:
The fact that she says she will buy them herself surely indicates that there is to be a wedding or some other joyous occation.
Like a funeral? Or maybe she just upset her gay friend and wants to cheer him up.
 
The only worthwhile opening lines are from Dicken's stuff and Neuromancer. They immediately set a mood and setting for the rest of the book in an interesting manner. The rest is garbage written by cunts who just got finished cleaning their vaginas.
 
I have to say I find dickens stuff very appealing. But some of the other is good aswell. The mayority of the lines, I have noticed, are the kind that makes you ask questions. Questions such as "Who is this man that is man that is in possesion of a good fortune?"
The best ones also calls forth a sense of interest. A rich man looking for a wife? Interesting. Drama and romance ahead.
 
Dead Guy said:
Imagine you're a woman. She's buying flowers! It instantly makes you interested. The fact that she says she will buy them herself surely indicates that there is to be a wedding or some other joyous occation. You're almost crying already.
Mr. Dalloway said fine, buy the flowers yourself you frigid, ungrateful shrew as he tossed on his hat and slammed the door with a force that said I've-got-better-things-to-do.

Take that, Virginia Woolf!
 
At times it seems very random what they put in, and how they rank it.
To me the first page is more important than the absolute first line.

It was a rather nice trip down memory lane, though.
 
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