First Lines Quiz

Beethoven's Fifth

Canadian author Crawford Kilian is attributed with saying: “The first line of a novel is like the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth: everything else follows from it.” Many authors (and readers) know that the first line of a novel is the most important line of the book. Right from the start, the reader must be intrigued and want to continue on to the next line, and then to the next, and so on.

I created a quiz of 25 first lines. These are some of the best ‘first lines’ ever written, or else they kicked off one of the best-selling books of all time. The books and authors are listed below the first lines. I will share the answers in my next blog post. Good luck!

FIRST LINE:

  1. “It was a dark and stormy night.”
  2. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
  3. “Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own.”
  4. “‘I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.'”
  5. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
  6. “He woke, and remembered dying.”
  7. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
  8. “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
  9. “Call me Ishmael.”
  10. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
  11. “All children, except one, grow up.”
  12. “‘TOM!’ No answer. ‘TOM!’ No answer.”
  13. “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
  14. “I see…,” said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window.”
  15. “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
  16.  “It was a pleasure to burn.”
  17. “The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.”
  18. “Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not on the subconscious level where savage things grow.”
  19. “When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
  20. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
  21. “As soon as he stepped into the dim apartment he knew he was dead.”
  22. “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”
  23. “The Sun did not shine.”
  24. “All this happened, more or less.”
  25. “Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the Museum’s Grand Gallery.”

AUTHOR and BOOK:

  • A.   Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)
  • B.   Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
  • C.   Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  • D.   J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
  • E.   Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire; The Vampire Chronicles, [1976]
  • F.   Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts, [2004]
  • G.   Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal.
  • H.   Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, [1969]
  • I.    Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
  • J.   Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, [1953]
  • K.   William Gibson, Neuromancer
  • L.   George Orwell, 1984
  • M.   J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
  • N.   Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
  • O.   Stephen King, Carrie, [1974]
  • P.   Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer
  • Q.   C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • R.   Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, [2008]
  • S.   H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, [1895]
  • T.   Dan Brown, Angels & Demons
  • U.   JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, [1954]
  • V.   Herman Melville, Moby Dick
  • W.   Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat
  • X.   Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)
  • Y.   Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

 

© Copyright 2012 Jeff, All rights Reserved. Written For: Jeffrey Olsen
Writing

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