Blog Post: Great Novel Openings Quiz

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New blog post by Claire Gallagher

Great Novel Openings Quiz

As writers, we all know how important it is to grip the reader from the very start. Intriguing, surprising and thought-provoking, these opening lines are widely recognised as some of the finest in literature. But how many novels can you recognise from just the first sentence? Answers at the end!

1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
3. Marley was dead, to begin with.
4. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
5. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
6. Call me Ishmael.
7. The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.
8. It was the day my grandmother exploded.
9. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
10. It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.
11. You better not never tell nobody but God.
12. 124 was spiteful. Full of Baby’s venom.
13. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
14. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.
15. All children, except one, grow up.

Answers

1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Hard Times, Charles Dickens
2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 1984, George Orwell
3. Marley was dead, to begin with. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
4. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
5. 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, Jane Austen
6. Call me Ishmael. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
7. The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
8. It was the day my grandmother exploded. The Crow Road, Iain Banks
9. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
10. 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, Sylvia Plath
11. You better not never tell nobody but God. The Colour Purple, Alice Walker
12. 124 was spiteful. Full of Baby’s venom. Beloved, Toni Morrison
13. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
14. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
15. All children, except one, grow up. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

Have I missed any great opening lines out? Let me know!
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[Sedayne]

Hi @Claire G
That was fun!
A couple of my all-time favourite first lines in there at 2 and 10.
I got a respectable 12/15
But I won't say how many I have(n't) read/finished

 

[Sedayne]

Here's three more favourites of mine - I think only one is considered a classic, though, and anyone would be forgiven for not knowing the others:
Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater.

I entered the strange world of Justine Shade via a message on the bulletin board in a laundromat filled with bitterness and the hot breath of dryers.

At an age when he was reassured that life was unlikely to surprise him further, Eustace found, in rapid succession, that he was quite possibly dying and that he was falling in love for the third time.

 

[Claire G]

Here's three more favourites of mine - I think only one is considered a classic, though, and anyone would be forgiven for not knowing the others:
Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater.

I entered the strange world of Justine Shade via a message on the bulletin board in a laundromat filled with bitterness and the hot breath of dryers.

At an age when he was reassured that life was unlikely to surprise him further, Eustace found, in rapid succession, that he was quite possibly dying and that he was falling in love for the first time.

Which novels are these from? They're great!

 

[Sedayne]

Which novels are these from? They're great!

The World According to Garp by John Irving (1978)
Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill (1991)
Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale (2018)

I like them because you get a sense of character right from the start.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

One that really hits me:
" Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Attwood.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there"...The Go-Between, L.P Hartley, 1953.


An Introduction to the Classics: The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley - The Oxford Blue

 

[Claire G]

"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there"...The Go-Between, L.P Hartley, 1953.


An Introduction to the Classics: The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley - The Oxford Blu

Love it!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Such a haunting story. And this first line is timeless, and it gets more haunting, year by year.

 

[Aethalope]

"How happy I am that I am gone!"
From The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.

It's about 18th century proto-incel Werther who wears yellow trousers and thinks the universe owes him happiness. He shoots himself when he doesn't get it.