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In the Beginning: Great Opening Lines from Your Favorite Books: Second Edition
Fascinating, amusing, and mesmerizing, IN THE BEGINNING presents the all-important first sentence to over 700 famous novels. Arranged alphabetically by title, and searchable by author, the selections range from classics to trendy best-sellers, from romances to westerns, from potboilers to prize winners, from sci-fi to the best of children's literature. Some beginnings are well remembered, others are brilliant but forgotten. Whether your literary tastes run to Virginia Woolf or Tom Wolfe, Edith Wharton or Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway or Gabriel García Márquez, you will delight in these great opening lines from your favorite books.
- GenresNonfiction
Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1991
4 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Hans Bauer
100 books19 followersHans Bauer is the co-author of Fishtale, the Young Adult adventure novel that reached #4 on Amazon's Children’s Bestseller List, and for which he received the 2013 Austin Waldorf Children’s Choice Award. He is also the writer of Anaconda: The Writer’s Cut, his novelization of the popular Anaconda film franchise. His most recent books are the co-authored The Adventures of Mitch and Geo, Lil' Elvis (Just the Way He Was), and An American Christmas. He is also the editor of In the Beginning: Great Opening Lines From Your Favorite Books.
As a screenwriter, he has several additional films to his credit, including Titan A.E. The Flock, and Highwaymen.
Hans lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.
As a screenwriter, he has several additional films to his credit, including Titan A.E. The Flock, and Highwaymen.
Hans lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 4, 2014
Great fun! Being reminded of old friends among books, briefly being introduced to ones you haven't met. Only flaw: it does not contain this opening line:
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
That is, of course, the opening line whose first seven words were borrowed by both Snoopy (numerous times) and Madeleine L’Engle (as the opening line of A Wrinkle in Time, which IS in this book).
Highly recommended for all bibliophiles.
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
That is, of course, the opening line whose first seven words were borrowed by both Snoopy (numerous times) and Madeleine L’Engle (as the opening line of A Wrinkle in Time, which IS in this book).
Highly recommended for all bibliophiles.
February 7, 2014
Searching for a great book. Use this book.
What a wonderful reference for any bookstore. Compiling the first sentence of all classics to intrigue readers to look into these books. A marvelous compendium of great literature.
What a wonderful reference for any bookstore. Compiling the first sentence of all classics to intrigue readers to look into these books. A marvelous compendium of great literature.
September 12, 2023
More variety than these sorts of things usually have. Still...not too much you can do with a first line.
November 6, 2021
I had seen the first edition of this books many years ago and gave it as a gift. Have been searching for it since. Finally came across the title in a blank book I had about reading. There it was. Then I found this new edition.
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February 2, 2014IN THE BEGINNING: Great Opening Lines From Your Favorite Books presents a smorgasbord of popular fiction from around the world; the all-important first sentence of over 700 famous and not-so-famous novels. Ideally, these opening lines will have a tremendous attraction for lovers of literature everywhere, an illuminating, amusing, and mesmerizing book that no reader – or writer – will be able to put down.
From Virginia Woolf to Tom Wolfe, from Edith Wharton to Stephen King, from Ernest Hemingway to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, masterpieces of world literature are juxtaposed with trendy best-sellers, romances with westerns, classics with cult favorites.
Some lines are well-remembered, others rarely recalled; still others are brilliant beginnings from relatively obscure books. But in every case, IN THE BEGINNING confirms how powerful a sentence can be.
While dazzling openers don’t guarantee a worthwhile novel, expectations run high when we’re introduced with: “Paint me a railroad station then, ten minutes before dark.” (John Cheever’s Bullet Park) or “There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan-Am flight to Vienna and I’d been psychoanalyzed by at least six of them.” (Fear of Flying by Erica Jong).
Some books reach their zenith with wonderful first lines that are never matched: “I had this story from one that had no business to tell it to me, or to any other,” from the first volume of the Tarzan series. Conversely, some rather mundane opening lines are made better because we know the marvelous story that follows, like B. Traven’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre: “The bench on which Dobbs was sitting was not so good.”
IN THE BEGINNING is more than just a novelty book. Anyone who loves books not only enjoys being reminded of their favorites, but also delights in finding a good one they’ve missed. Those who relish reading and writing will savor a collection that brings back memories of beloved books, and often, the times in which they were read; the perfect gift for book lovers and a wonderful conversation piece.
From Virginia Woolf to Tom Wolfe, from Edith Wharton to Stephen King, from Ernest Hemingway to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, masterpieces of world literature are juxtaposed with trendy best-sellers, romances with westerns, classics with cult favorites.
Some lines are well-remembered, others rarely recalled; still others are brilliant beginnings from relatively obscure books. But in every case, IN THE BEGINNING confirms how powerful a sentence can be.
While dazzling openers don’t guarantee a worthwhile novel, expectations run high when we’re introduced with: “Paint me a railroad station then, ten minutes before dark.” (John Cheever’s Bullet Park) or “There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan-Am flight to Vienna and I’d been psychoanalyzed by at least six of them.” (Fear of Flying by Erica Jong).
Some books reach their zenith with wonderful first lines that are never matched: “I had this story from one that had no business to tell it to me, or to any other,” from the first volume of the Tarzan series. Conversely, some rather mundane opening lines are made better because we know the marvelous story that follows, like B. Traven’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre: “The bench on which Dobbs was sitting was not so good.”
IN THE BEGINNING is more than just a novelty book. Anyone who loves books not only enjoys being reminded of their favorites, but also delights in finding a good one they’ve missed. Those who relish reading and writing will savor a collection that brings back memories of beloved books, and often, the times in which they were read; the perfect gift for book lovers and a wonderful conversation piece.
April 7, 2014
Great book with some great insights
May 19, 2015
Needs an editor. Badly. Two stars for some interesting lines catching my interest.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews