By Karna Small Bodman
July in Florida means sunny pleasant mornings with a few wispy clouds. This is the only time I can swim laps in our pool here in Naples because by Noon the heat of the day sets in, and the water temperature is 90 degrees – feels like a bathtub. However, at night, it’s a different story, nothing but heavy clouds and thunderstorms, which reminds me of Charles Schulz’ cartoon of Snoopy who began “his” writing career in July of 1965 with the infamous first line:
“It was a dark and stormy night.”
It turns out that the artist brought his love of literature to his characters Snoopy, Lucy and Linus. Shultz’ most admired authors included Leo Tolstoy, Eudora Welty, and F. Scott Fitzgerald and said that he came to understand the world through his love of books and reading.
The first author who did pen that well known first line was the English novelist, playwright and politician, Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton in his 1830 book Paul Clifford, a novel that tells a dark tale of a robber who doesn’t know he’s the son of the judge who eventually sentences him to death. The twist at the end (spoiler alert if you intend to read this one) is that the robber frees himself and marries his cousin America. (Don’t you love a happy ending?)
A second great first line was penned by Samuel Beckett in Murphy:
“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”
Yes, those were the exact words of his first novel, published in 1938. The hero, adrift in London, realizes that desire can never be satisfied and withdraws from life. His lovestruck fiancée, Celia, tries to draw him back, but that doesn’t work out very well. It is said that Beckett’s achievement in this early work lies in the brilliantly original language he used.
One more book with a unique first line is the science fiction thriller, Neuromancer by William Gibson:
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
This one was published in 2000 and is eerily prescient because it refers to artificial intelligence which is all over the news today. The hero in this one was known as the sharpest data-thief in the matrix – until he crossed the wrong people. He did have a partner, Molly, to watch his back. (Glad we got a woman featured on one of these).
Endeavoring to remember if I happened to write an interesting first line in any of my thrillers, my favorite turned out to be the opening of my second book, Gambit:
“Clear blue skies. Clear blue water. Not a harbinger of things to come.”
That story has a heroine who works for a defense contractor trying to develop a laser system to protect commercial airliners from attack. And while it came out in 2018, the idea of a laser system has also been in the news lately over at the Pentagon.
Finally, to end on a humorous note, the English Department of San Jose State University in California used to sponsor a contest where writers were invited to compose an opening sentence of a really bad novel. The sponsor retired this year, but here’s the winning sentence in 2024:
“She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.”
Do you have any famous first lines you’d like to share with us? Leave them in a comment below.
And thanks for visiting Rogue Women Writers!
Karna Small Bodman is the author of five international thrillers that have hit #1 in Thrillers on Amazon and won several awards, as well as a series of children’s picture books. Her books were inspired by the six years she served in the Reagan White House, first as Deputy Press Secretary, later as Senior Director of the National Security Council where she was the highest-ranking woman on the White House staff. On book tours she has given over 400 speeches and interviews nation-wide. When not writing or traveling, she is serving on several boards and swimming laps at their homes in Naples, FL, and Washington, DC.
I never forgot the first line in Linda Howard’s Mackenzie’s Mountain. Published in 1989, it was the reason I bought the book. Romance at it’s best.
I don’t read that much now, moved to mystery and cozy but still love this story and first line.
He needed a woman. Bad.
First lines are the most important ones of a book, although the last is pretty darned important, too, and often sells the next book.
That last first line was hilarious.
I have no idea why I remember it, but I believe the first line of Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave is “I was six the day my uncle Camlach came home.”