# "It was the best of times..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517 "2017-09-28T13:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/1 "2017-09-28T13:50:32Z")
That’s the start of one of the most famous opening sentences in English literature. It sets the theme for what will come after; it draws the reader in. A lame opening sentence won’t wreck a book, but it doesn’t help; a brilliant one hooks the reader from the start. I’m reading the Narnia Chronicles (for the first time, at age 68; no, dunno why I waited so long) and have come to _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_, which opens thus: > [@](#): > > There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. I read that, and laughed. Out loud. Had to pause and admire the perfection of that sentence before going on. Am I alone in thinking that that “almost” puts the cherry on the sundae? Read it out loud; it’s the oomph word in cadence; it suggests so much of what will follow. The whole thing is a gem of the story teller’s art. Which leads me, in true Doper fashion, to ask: What are your favorite opening sentences? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/2 "2017-09-28T13:57:42Z")
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, _100 Year of Solitude_. One of the best narrative hooks ever (actually it’s the first nine words that make this work). You want to find out _why_ he faced a firing squad (and later why that memory was so important to him) and are immediately drawn into the story. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/3 "2017-09-28T13:59:24Z")
The Lewis line you cited is one of my favorites, too. I think my all-time favorite is from John D. MacDonald’s Darker Than Amber, one of the Travis McGee novels. It starts: “We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/4 "2017-09-28T14:08:49Z")
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. (And the the murders began.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/5 "2017-09-28T14:39:46Z")
My favorite is: > [@](#): > > In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/6 "2017-09-28T14:41:56Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > My favorite is: That’s two sentences. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/7 "2017-09-28T14:42:17Z")
Maybe it is cheating, but the first paragraph. > [@Beat to Quarters](#): > > It was not long after dawn when the captain of His Majesty’s frigate _Lydia_ came up on deck. Mr. Bush the first lieutenant, who was officer of the deck, touched his hat, but did not speak. In a voyage which had by now lasted seven months without touching land, he had learned something of his captain’s likes and dislikes. During this first hour of the day, the captain was not to be spoken to, nor the train of his thought interrupted. It’s the quick cuts in point of view. First, third party observer, setting time of day and location. Then Mr. Bush, who establishes that the routine of the ship is iron-clad, because the captain wants it that way. And that the captain wants to be alone with his thoughts, even after seven months of no contact with the outside world. In one crisp paragraph, we know the scene, the relevant parts of the history, and a good deal about the character of the captain, his situation, and how he deals with it. The next paragraph starts narrating from inside Hornblower’s head, and it remains there almost uninterrupted for the rest of the novel. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/8 "2017-09-28T15:06:22Z")
If we’re doing Crime/Mystery as well as High Art, there’s the great opener from Jim Crumley’s THE LAST GOOD KISS. “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog called Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” Also, Richard Stark is tough to beat. “When the phone rang, Parker was out in the garage, killing a man.” ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/9 "2017-09-28T15:12:34Z")
I’ve always been partial to “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/10 "2017-09-28T15:18:46Z")
Also fond of “The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light years and eight centuries.” (Vernor Vinge, _A Deepness In The Sky_). Brisk open _in medias res_. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/11 "2017-09-28T15:27:35Z")
I rather like: “The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.” (Blood Rites, in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/12 "2017-09-28T15:31:25Z")
“…it was the BLURST of times? You stupid monkey.” Jack Torrance thought: _Officious little prick_. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/13 "2017-09-28T15:35:14Z")
Robert McCammon’s _Gone South_: It was Hell’s season, and the air smelled of burning children. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/14 "2017-09-28T15:44:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Maybe it is cheating, but the first paragraph. > > It’s the quick cuts in point of view. First, third party observer, setting time of day and location. Then Mr. Bush, who establishes that the routine of the ship is iron-clad, because the captain wants it that way. And that the captain wants to be alone with his thoughts, even after seven months of no contact with the outside world. > > In one crisp paragraph, we know the scene, the relevant parts of the history, and a good deal about the character of the captain, his situation, and how he deals with it. > > The next paragraph starts narrating from inside Hornblower’s head, and it remains there almost uninterrupted for the rest of the novel. > > Regards, > Shodan I love that you know that by heart, and I adore the Hornblower series. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/15 "2017-09-28T16:35:43Z")
… and it’s a real cracker, just listen to this: “A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.” ---
**Author:** ![icantdraw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@icantdraw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icantdraw)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/16 "2017-09-28T16:41:43Z")
“It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.” Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts One of my favorite books ever. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/17 "2017-09-28T16:46:17Z")
> [@K364](#): > > … and it’s a real cracker, just listen to this: > > “A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.” …and that after only three hours of writing. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/18 "2017-09-28T16:48:04Z")
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/19 "2017-09-28T16:50:46Z")
“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re going to get.” - _Ender’s Game,_ Orson Scott Card. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. (And the the murders began.) Snerk. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517/20 "2017-09-28T17:07:57Z")
“Happy families are all alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-the-best-of-times/797517.md?page=2)