Opening Lines.

susan

@sueznewz2 (10409)

• Alicante, Spain

16 Jul 16

Yes...I have too....

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

Thank you for liking. Do share your 'opening lines' when you decide.

1 person likes this

Chloe Flanagan

@puddleglum (1380)

• United States

10 Jul 16

Those are great opening lines! These are my favorite: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

3 people like this

Chloe Flanagan

@puddleglum (1380)

• United States

10 Jul 16

@responsiveme Opening lines are definitely crucial, since they must capture the reader's interest and convince them to keep reading. The Scaramouche opening lines pulled me in, when I first read the book. It's a historical adventure story. If you can access Project Gutenberg, it can be found there for free.

2 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

Your first favourite is one I think is great too. Haven't read the second one, the opening lines are captivating though.

2 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

@puddleglum Thank you.I have accessed Project Gutenberg and read the stories there.I will go there and read this book too.

1 person likes this

Belle Starr (Iz)

@BelleStarr (61047)

• United States

13 Jul 16

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”—from Pride and Prejudice

2 people like this

Belle Starr (Iz)

@BelleStarr (61047)

• United States

13 Jul 16

@responsiveme No but I will look for it, I have read several other "continuation" novels.

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Belle Starr (Iz)

@BelleStarr (61047)

• United States

13 Jul 16

@responsiveme I have to confess I never read it.

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@responsiveme (22926)

• India

13 Jul 16

@BelleStarr this is not a continuation in the true sense because P D James is a very good mystery writer but she wanted to show her liking of Austen. Did you like the sequel to "gone with the wind? "

1 person likes this

Anna

@LadyDuck (458091)

• Switzerland

10 Jul 16

The same you mentioned, from the Novel Rebecca. I have watched the movie three days ago. I particularly love this novel, may be because I have lived in Monte-Carlo. It's the place where everything starts.

3 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

I too have watched the movie both the versions. Which one did you watch?The Laurence Olivier one? You have lived in interesting places.monte Carlo was also the setting for "To catch a thief", another movie that I like.

3 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

@LadyDuck I too likethe older version. Yes, Grace Kelly was an ethereal princess.

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Jabo

@jaboUK (64361)

• United Kingdom

10 Jul 16

I've always loved the opening lines of Edward Fitzgerald's 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam': 'Awake! for morning in the bowl of night Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight'.

2 people like this

Jabo

@jaboUK (64361)

• United Kingdom

10 Jul 16

@responsiveme I've corrected the typo, thanks. The whole poem is wonderful, but what about : The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety and Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your Tears wash out a word of it. (I've put the capitals in as Fitzgerald did, as you did the same.)

2 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

@jaboUK I never knew that was from the poem.Thank you. Yes, this is pretty well known too . Just a few days ago I was thinking of this quotation.What a coincidence.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

11 Jul 16

@responsiveme I thought it was Shakespeare

1 person likes this

crazyhorseladycx

@crazyhorseladycx (39515)

• United States

10 Jul 16

what beautiful memories such conjured fer ya :) i've been wrackin' my brain tryin' to recall my fav's...to no successful end. i can recall patches, then not the author'f such't seems? sometimes i truly despise these 'brain hiccups'. then 'gain perhaps i need to see if'n the eyes can hold'p to readin' novels 'n poetry yet 'gain, give this ol' brain a refresher course 'n the delights'f the written words 'f others. big hugs!

2 people like this

crazyhorseladycx

@crazyhorseladycx (39515)

• United States

11 Jul 16

@responsiveme

aw, most kind 'f ya, my friend :D i'm so thrilled that'cha got that time off to spend with 'em, those precious (though sometimes chaotic) times 're where memories 're made'n our souls reconnected. leavin' 's somewhat exhausted 'n somehow renewed't the same time when life gets back to 'normal'. no worries'n that postcard, k? i aint frettin' o'er such, so don't let't burden ya. i'm'n the uphill battle (fingers crossed) 'n hopefully the memory'll return. if'n not, 'tis off to the library fer refresher courses. big hugs, 'n do've a great time!

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

11 Jul 16

Big hugs! I hate it when I am not in touch with you. I'll be off and on this month as its vacation time and I have lots of things to do and family visits.so when I am not here, you must know you are always on my mind. I am still searching for that postcard.I haven't forgotten. Take your time..... Even if you can recall patches, we can search together .Lets try.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

12 Jul 16

@crazyhorseladycx

1 person likes this

topffer

@topffer (42156)

• France

10 Jul 16

I have personally a penchant for forewords. I give you two opening foreword sentences of French books that you probably not know. Both have been translated in English, but the translations are not very good. "One of the greatest burlesques of the glorious epoch at which we have the good fortune to live, is unquestionably the rehabilitation of virtue undertaken by all the newspapers of every hue, red, green, or tri-colored." Théophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin, 1835. "In life, the most important is to have a priori opinions on everything." Boris Vian, L'écume des jours "Foam of the Days", 1947.

2 people like this

Froth on the Daydream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

topffer

@topffer (42156)

• France

10 Jul 16

@responsiveme

The opening of these books are sarcastic. For the second one, Vian continues with "It indeed seems that masses are always wrong, and individuals always right. We must avoid to deduce rules of conduct from this : they should not need to be formulated to be followed. There are only two things : it is love, in every way, with cute girls, and music from New-Orleans or Duke Ellington. The rest should better disappear, because the rest is ugly, and the few demonstration pages that are following are drawing all their strength from the fact that the story is completely true, because I imagined it from one side to the other. (...)"

There are three movie adaptations of this book. Read it if you have an opportunity, you will not be deceived. It is a weird and wonderful love story. Since the 1980's this book is studied in high schools, and a lot of children in France have been called "Colin" and "Chloé" like the couple in this novel

en.wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Froth on the Daydream First English-language edition cover Author Boris Vian Original title L'Écume des jours Translator Stanley Chapman Country France Language French Publisher Éditions Gal

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@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

@topffer

I will keep the book on my to read list.Thank you.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

No, I don't know about the mentioned books. And the second opening foreword is exactly what I keep telling my younger son not to have.

1 person likes this

rebel_woman06

@SIMPLYD (90722)

• Philippines

13 Jul 16

How i wish i can still remember the nice opening lines of the books i have read . But when i was a child , my favorite opening line is " Once upon a time . . . . "

1 person likes this

rebel_woman06

@SIMPLYD (90722)

• Philippines

13 Jul 16

@responsiveme Indeed . Our father bought us the two big books on Fairy Tales from Reader's Digest , i think . And that book was after a year , was already torn from our c0nstant flipping of the pages , and we are five girls.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

13 Jul 16

I think that was the favourite opening line of every child and still is....a time when we would be transported to the magical world of fairy tales.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

13 Jul 16

@SIMPLYD Precious times and wonderful memories! don't you think so? BTW, nice to know you have 4 sisters.I missed out on having one.

1 person likes this

Silvermist

@silvermist (19702)

• India

10 Jul 16

That sentence from Rabecca has always been my favorite too.

2 people like this

Silvermist

@silvermist (19702)

• India

18 Aug 16

@responsiveme Yes,I had seen the movie,but a very very long ago.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

Have you seen the movie?

1 person likes this

sofs

@sofssu (23662)

•

10 Jul 16

I have no favorite opening lines but I love to quote Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly or Wordsworth. But I love all those ebooks you have mentioned.. I loved everyone of Eric Segal.. I also like to quote from the Bronte sisters too.

2 people like this

sofs

@sofssu (23662)

•

10 Jul 16

@responsiveme Yep, I know that your mom is right.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

We did those poets at school. My mother keeps on quoting Shakespeare.She says there is a line for every situation in our lives.

1 person likes this

Inlemay

@Inlemay (17714)

• South Africa

11 Jul 16

I love the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities - it describes so many days in my life as well.

1 person likes this

Inlemay

@Inlemay (17714)

• South Africa

11 Jul 16

@responsiveme brilliant lines - because with everything good there are always some worst of times too

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Inlemay

@Inlemay (17714)

• South Africa

15 Jul 16

@responsiveme when are you going to write a new piece, I look for something new to read almost daily - its time

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

11 Jul 16

Thats my father's favourite opening lines, we heard it again and again from him.....

1 person likes this

solxee

@sol_cee (38223)

• Philippines

11 Jul 16

Rebecca which never appeared in the book.

1 person likes this

solxee

@sol_cee (38223)

• Philippines

13 Jul 16

@responsiveme I do? lol

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

11 Jul 16

Yes! her shadowy presence dominated .By the way, you do travel a lot don't you?

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

13 Jul 16

@sol_cee your location keeps changing

strange woman

@aarifa (1210)

• India

10 Jul 16

I like to read good love stories..

2 people like this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

10 Jul 16

I like to read romantic books too.What is your favourite love story?

rachz_kisses

@rachz_kisses (3798)

• Philippines

19 Jul 16

Well, I have one favorite but it's not from a novel or a book... It's from the movie "You've Got Mail" (1998). "What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it connects. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail. I hear nothing. Not even a sound on the Streets of New York, just the beating of my own heart. I have mail. From you." - Kathleen Kelly, You've Got Mail.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

20 Jul 16

I loved this film

1 person likes this

rachz_kisses

@rachz_kisses (3798)

• Philippines

20 Jul 16

@responsiveme Me too. I have watched it for the nth times.

1 person likes this

Morning Girl

@salonga (27775)

• Philippines

14 Jul 16

I remembered the Old Man and the Sea of Ernest Hemingway. I was in college when we took up this novel. "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."

1 person likes this

Morning Girl

@salonga (27775)

• Philippines

14 Jul 16

@responsiveme Big impact yes! especially that we even dramatize the story and all of us really prepared for it.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

14 Jul 16

Yes, Hemingway is a person I have read a lot of. also books that you read in college leave an impact.

1 person likes this

susan

@sueznewz2 (10409)

• Alicante, Spain

16 Jul 16

I'm afraid I do not read much..., and the few I do read do not open with classiclineslike the ones you've mentioned. ..which I enjoyed very much...and reading some of the other comment too...

1 person likes this

susan

@sueznewz2 (10409)

• Alicante, Spain

16 Jul 16

@responsiveme that's right it is... thank you too....

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

16 Jul 16

Thats what a discussion is all about.Thanks for taking part.:)

1 person likes this

The Horse

@TheHorse (205753)

• Walnut Creek, California

14 Jul 16

Wow. Good one. I'd have to go back and look at the first lines of my favorite novels. The Magus by John Fowles. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Anything by Tony Hillerman. What comes to mind is "The night Max wore his wolf suit," from my favorite children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

14 Jul 16

Thanks. Read the Mark Twain..obviously . John Fowles...Seen the movie long ago , loved it ,one of my favourite actresses there. High Wind in Jamaica is right there at my parents place...lots of books so we get familiar with the titles even though haven't read it..will bring it next time I visit and definitely put Maurice Sendak on my reading list. Thanks for all those names.

Valerie J. Routhieaux

@just4him (306239)

• Green Bay, Wisconsin

12 Jul 16

I should pay more attention to opening lines, but I find that if the story grabs me with the first line I'm soon engrossed in the story that I forget what the first line was. I do know those mentioned from Charles Dickens and Erich Segal. I've read Love Story and seen the movie. I haven't read Tale of Two Cities, but I am familiar with the opening lines.

1 person likes this

@responsiveme (22926)

• India

12 Jul 16

The first sentence does grab our attention.

1 person likes this

Valerie J. Routhieaux

@just4him (306239)

• Green Bay, Wisconsin

13 Jul 16

@responsiveme Yes it does and that is what I work at with my own work.

1 person likes this

Reine25

@Lucky15 (37346)

• Philippines

10 Jul 16

I have one. "Will you do my euology?" From have a littlr faith by mitch albom. I was thinking of making a discussion about it ir something related to it. Lol

1 person likes this

Reine25

@Lucky15 (37346)

• Philippines

11 Jul 16

@responsiveme the story too :)

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