Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Nov 2024’s Great Opening Lines)

I wrote in Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Part 3 – Some Great Opening Lines) that I’d share more great opening lines as I found them.

My last entry in this category was December 2023’s Great Opening Lines – and Why! (December 2023’s Great Opening Lines) which covered Hal Clement’s‘s Hot Planet. This entry in the Great Opening Lines – And Why! posts is a threefer:

• Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ Tarzan of the Apes
• Anne Cleves‘ White Nights
• Adilyn Andrews‘ The Shadow’s Prelude

I HAD this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. from Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ Tarzan of the Apes.
Eighteen words letting the reader know what is shared is a confidence, hence intimacy and immediacy are in the first sentence. Credibility is stated because the narrator implies they don’t believe what they’re about to share, either.

Did Burroughs write pulp? Probably so, and he did it brilliantly. I go into a bit more detail re Burroughs’ opening to Tarzan of the Apes in An Experiment in Writing – Part 5: More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, POV, and Narrator.

The passengers streamed ashore from the cruise ship. from Anne Cleves‘ White Nights.
Eight words defining setting, atmosphere, scene, tone, and voice.

My god, does it get any better?

The reader knows they’re at some kind of harbor or port-of-call, they know a fairly good sized ship is docked, they know there are tourists (a passenger on a cruise ship is probably a tourist) so they’re at some vacation destination, blah blah blah even on down to the use of “streamed” to emphasize the water metaphor (the story takes place on the Shetland islands, which are themselves a character in the story and which, as a setting, play a significant role in the story).

I’ve got to learn to write with this kind of concision.

The air carried the nostalgic scent of weathered paper and leather-bound volumes in the softly
illuminated library. from Adilyn Andrews‘ The Shadow’s Prelude.
Sensory detail abounds here and it’s done to move the story forward.

“nostalgic scent,” “weathered paper,” “leather-bound,” “softly illuminated,” and “library.”

If you’re not there, you’re not paying attention. Setting, scene, atmosphere, tone, and voice in eighteen words.

Andrews is a new author to me and I’m thrilled by the discovery. Also saddened. Will my work ever compare to hers?

I can only hope.

I discuss more of Andrews’ The Shadow’s Prelude in An Experiment in Writing – Part 7: Inciting Incidents.

Do you have any great opening lines you’d like to share?
I’d love to know them. There’s a catch, though. You have to explain in context why a line is great. Saying a line is great because it comes from some great literature doesn’t cut it. Quoting from archaic and/or little known works doesn’t cut it.

Feel free to quote from archaic and/or little know works, just make sure you give reasons why something is great. I stated the Great Opening Lines criteria back in Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Part 2 -What Makes a Great Opening Line?).

So by all means, make the claim. Just make sure you provide the proof according to the guidelines given. If not, your comment won’t get published.