Beginning Sentences

by Carol Park

From Jane Austen to Gabriel García Márquez, writing the first sentence has probably always been the most difficult part of writing a book. The opening sentence may or may not ensure the success of the book, but it could mean the difference between a person continuing to read it and putting it back down, unread.

Larry McMurtry states in his novel, Some Can Whistle, that an opening sentence should be "analogous to a good country breakfast; what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two." On the same subject, he later declares "the first sentence of a book was of critical, even crucial, importance. If you could think of a good one, all the other sentences might follow after it obediently. They might just come marching briskly out of your brain, like well-drilled soldiers."

Some beginnings are deliciously short; some are just delicious: "it was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." Others are nauseatingly cumbersome: "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 . . . ," and etc.

Below, find fourteen first sentences from a random collection of literary classics (among other less classic). Match the opening line with the writer and the work. Oh, and have fun.

A. _____ Sunday, 14 June, 1942. On Friday, June 12th, I woke up at six o'clock and no wonder; it was my birthday.

B. _____ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

C. _____ A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.

D. _____ It was my destiny to join in a great experience.

E. _____ It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

F. _____ In the first weeks of World War II, in the fall of 1939, a six-year-old boy from a large city in Eastern Europe was sent by his parents, like thousands of other children, to the shelter of a distant village.

G. _____ It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

H. _____ It was Wang Lung's marriage day.

I. _____ 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, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

J. _____ Who is John Galt?

K. _____ It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.

L. _____ Gustave Aschenbach -- or von Aschenbach, as he had been known officially since his fifteenth birthday -- had set out alone from his house in Prince Regent Street, Munich, for an extended walk.

M. _____ It was late in the evening when K. arrived.

N. _____ When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake -- not a very big one.

Choose answers from the following titles:

1. Pearl Buck, The Good Earth

2. Franz Kafka, The Castle

3. Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird

4. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

5. Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

6. Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

7. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

8. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

9. Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

10. Thomas Hardy, Return of the Native

11. George Orwell, 1984

12. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

13. Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

14. Hermann Hesse, The Journey to the East

Answers:

A-5, B-12, C-10, D-14, E-8, F-3, G-13, H-1, I-7, J-4, K-11, L-6, M-2, N-9