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30 Novels With the Best Opening Lines (+ 2 Favourites)

I checked out these opening lines and do agree that they grab your attention. The two favourites are the last two novels in this list.
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819 users · 2,681 views
 
from telegraph.co.uk · made by CQSteve
avg. score: 10 of 32 (31%)
required scores: 1, 5, 8, 10, 14 

Which ones have you read?

Page 1 of 1
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice
1
Jane Austen
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
Anna Karenina
2
Leo Tolstoy
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
A Tale of Two Cities
3
Charles Dickens
1984 (George Orwell)
1984
4
George Orwell
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
The Bell Jar
5
Sylvia Plath
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
6
Mark Twain
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Catcher in the Rye
7
J.D. Salinger
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)
Wide Sargasso Sea
8
Jean Rhys
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Great Gatsby
9
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Go-Between (L.P. Hartley)
The Go-Between
10
L.P. Hartley
Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
Metamorphosis
11
Franz Kafka
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
Moby Dick
12
Herman Melville
Murphy
Murphy
13
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Catch-22
14
Joseph Heller
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Middlemarch
15
George Eliot
Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie)
Peter Pan
16
J. M. Barrie
The Portrait of a Lady (Henry James)
The Portrait of a Lady
17
Henry James
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Lolita
18
Vladimir Nabokov
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez)
Love in the Time of Cholera
19
Gabriel García Márquez
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
20
Ken Kesey
Goodbye to Berlin (Christopher Isherwood)
Goodbye to Berlin
21
Christopher Isherwood
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry
22
A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
A Confederacy of Dunces
23
John Kennedy Toole
The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
The Red Badge of Courage
24
Stephen Crane
The Crow Road
The Crow Road
25
Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy)
Jude the Obscure
26
Thomas Hardy
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Jane Eyre
27
Charlotte Bronte
The Stranger (Albert Camus)
The Stranger
28
Albert Camus
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
The Old Man and the Sea
29
Ernest Hemingway
Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
Slaughterhouse-Five
30
Kurt Vonnegut
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
The Outsiders
31
S.E. Hinton
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)
Something Wicked This Way Comes
32
Ray Bradbury
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