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30 Great Opening Lines in Literature

Sometimes the opening line of a book can either make it sink or swim and define whether we read further. For me personally the opening line of a book has always been important and meaningful. I used to have this game with my boyfriend where we would read the opening lines of books to each other and critisize them and pick our favorites ;)
Here's The Telegraph's list of 30 great opening lines in literature. I'll only include the book, so you'll have to read the book in question (if you haven't already) to find out whether you think the opening line is great or not (or you could just read the original list ;p).
956 users · 3,860 views
 
from telegraph.co.uk · made by AnnaBoots
avg. score: 10 of 30 (34%)
required scores: 1, 6, 8, 11, 14 
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How many have you read?

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1
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
2
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
3
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
4
1984 (George Orwell)
1984 (George Orwell)
5
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
6
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
7
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
8
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)
9
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
10
The Go-Between
The Go-Between
11
Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
12
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
13
Murphy (Samuel Beckett)
Murphy (Samuel Beckett)
14
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
15
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
16
Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie)
Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie)
17
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
18
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
19
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
20
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
21
Goodbye to Berlin (Christopher Isherwood)
Goodbye to Berlin (Christopher Isherwood)
22
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry
23
A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
24
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
25
The Crow Road (Iain Banks)
The Crow Road (Iain Banks)
26
Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy)
Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy)
27
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
28
The Stranger (Albert Camus)
The Stranger (Albert Camus)
29
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
30
Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
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