The most famous first lines in literature
In 2006 the American Book Review asked critics, writers, literature professors and readers to vote for the best opening lines of novels. These were the top ten [2]:
- “Call me Ishmael.” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
- “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- “A screaming comes across the sky.” Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
- “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
- “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
- “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877)
- “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay…” James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)
- “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
- “I am an invisible man.” Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
The magazine itself says such lists are subjective and reflect current tastes rather than a final verdict [2]. Several of the same openings appear in Scribendi’s illustrated collection above, which gathers 34 compelling first lines from 1813 to 2008 [1].
Famous first lines that make a claim about the world
Some of the best known openings state a big idea in one sentence, and the rest of the book tests it. Austen’s line about a single man with a fortune being “in want of a wife” sounds like a general truth, and the joke, as the novel soon shows, is that it is the families with daughters to marry who are most in want of him [1][2]. Tolstoy’s “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” sets up a novel about several families and their troubles [1].
Dickens goes further in A Tale of Two Cities: a long chain of opposites (“the best of times… the worst of times… the age of wisdom… the age of foolishness”) that sums up the contradictions of the revolutionary period in a single sentence [1].
Opening lines that leave you wondering
Many memorable openings work because something is slightly wrong. Orwell’s “the clocks were striking thirteen” turns an ordinary spring morning strange in the last word [1]. Ray Bradbury’s “It was a pleasure to burn” in Fahrenheit 451 is only six words long, and makes the reader wonder what is being burned and why it is a pleasure [1]. Joseph Heller opens Catch-22 with “It was love at first sight”, and the next sentence reveals that Yossarian has fallen in love with the chaplain [1].
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake starts with just four words, “Snowman wakes before dawn”, leaving the reader to work out who, or what, Snowman is [1]. J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy does something similar with “All children, except one, grow up” [1].
First lines that introduce a voice
Other openings grab you through the narrator. Melville’s “Call me Ishmael” is three words that create a relationship with the reader straight away [2]. Mark Twain’s Huck Finn talks to you directly in dialect: “You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.” J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye refuses to tell you “all that David Copperfield kind of crap” in a sentence that tells you exactly who he is [1].
Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas opens “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold”, which sets the tone of the whole book [1]. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby starts with his father’s advice that “all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”, and Lewis Carroll opens Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with a bored Alice asking “what is the use of a book… without pictures or conversation?” [1] And William Goldman’s The Princess Bride begins with a playful paradox: “This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it” [1].
Famous first lines from children’s books
Children’s classics have some of the best known openings of all [1]:
- “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937)
- “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
- “‘Where’s Papa going with that ax?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.” E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web (1952)
- “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
- “All children, except one, grow up.” J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy (1911)
Science fiction has its own favourites too. Douglas Adams opens The Restaurant at the End of the Universe with “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move” [1].
What makes a good first line?
Scribendi, an editing company, says a first line’s job is to set the mood and draw the reader in [1]. Looking at the openings that last, a few patterns stand out:
- A surprise or contradiction that raises a question, like Orwell’s thirteenth hour or Heller’s love at first sight.
- A distinctive voice you want to keep listening to, like Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield.
- A big, quotable idea, like Austen’s and Tolstoy’s general truths.
- Economy. Many of the most remembered openings are under ten words: “Call me Ishmael”, “It was a pleasure to burn”, “I am an invisible man”.
The opening words of a text even have a name, the incipit, from the Latin for “it begins”. Before titles were common, texts were often known by their first words, and medieval scribes sometimes decorated the opening page heavily [3].
Questions about famous first lines of books
What is the most famous first line of a book?
“Call me Ishmael”, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851), topped the American Book Review‘s 2006 vote for the best first lines of novels, ahead of the opening of Pride and Prejudice [2].
What is a famous short first line?
“Call me Ishmael” (three words), “Snowman wakes before dawn” (four), “It was love at first sight” (six) and “It was a pleasure to burn” (six) are among the shortest well known openings [1][2].
What is the first line of 1984?
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” [1]
What is the first line of Pride and Prejudice?
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” [2]
What is the opening line of a book called?
It is sometimes called the incipit, from the Latin for “it begins” [3]. Writers more often just call it the opening line or the hook.
Sources
- Scribendi, 34 Compelling First Lines of Famous Books, the original infographic.
- American Book Review, 100 Best First Lines from Novels, Volume 27, No. 2 (2006).
- Wikipedia, Incipit.
Last reviewed 2 November 2026
