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The Best Opening Lines in Literature - Page 3

Collected by Buzzfeed (and supplemented by additional online lists), these are books with some of the greatest, most enticing, surprising, poetic, starkly insidious, darkly comic, or deliciously clever opening lines of all time.
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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
81
Italo Calvino
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things
82
Intruder in the Dust (William Faulkner)
Intruder in the Dust
83
William Faulkner
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
Invisible Man
84
Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Jane Eyre
85
Charlotte Bronte
JR
JR
86
Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy)
Jude the Obscure
87
Thomas Hardy
Kindred (Octavia Butler)
Kindred
88
Octavia Butler
The Last Good Kiss
The Last Good Kiss
89
Less Than Zero (Bret Easton Ellis)
Less Than Zero
90
Bret Easton Ellis
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
91
Laurence Sterne
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Lolita
92
Vladimir Nabokov
Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad)
Lord Jim
93
Joseph Conrad
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez)
Love in the Time of Cholera
94
Gabriel García Márquez
Love, Anger, Madness (Marie Vieux-Chauvet)
Love, Anger, Madness
95
Marie Vieux-Chauvet
The Lover (Marguerite Duras)
The Lover
96
Marguerite Duras
The Luck of the Bodkins (P. G. Wodehouse)
The Luck of the Bodkins
97
P. G. Wodehouse
The Making of Americans (Gertrude Stein)
The Making of Americans
98
Gertrude Stein
The Marriage Plot (Jeffrey Eugenides)
The Marriage Plot
99
Jeffrey Eugenides
The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
The Metamorphosis
100
Franz Kafka
Middle Passage
Middle Passage
101
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Middlemarch
102
George Eliot
Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Middlesex
103
Jeffrey Eugenides
Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie)
Midnight's Children
104
Salman Rushdie
Miss Lonelyhearts (Nathanael West)
Miss Lonelyhearts
105
Nathanael West
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
Moby Dick
106
Herman Melville
Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
Mrs. Dalloway
107
Virginia Woolf
Murphy (Samuel Beckett)
Murphy
108
Samuel Beckett
My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante)
My Brilliant Friend
109
Elena Ferrante
The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss)
The Name of the Wind
110
Patrick Rothfuss
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
111
Neuromancer (William Gibson)
Neuromancer
112
William Gibson
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Never Let Me Go
113
Kazuo Ishiguro
Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
Nineteen Eighty-Four
114
George Orwell
Notes From the Underground (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Notes From the Underground
115
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
The Old Man and the Sea
116
Ernest Hemingway
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
On the Road
117
Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
118
Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
119
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Origin of the Brunists
The Origin of the Brunists
120
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