Famous first lines of classic novels
The best-known first lines of classic novels are specific and a little odd: a name, a date, a weather report, a rule that sounds like a joke. This page collects 23 of them, from Frankenstein (1818) to The Great Gatsby (1925). Every book was first published before 1930, and every quote is checked against a named Project Gutenberg text.
How we chose. We picked lines that readers recognise on sight, plus a few that open a scene well. Each quote is copied from the Project Gutenberg edition linked under it. Where a quote stops before the end of its sentence, we mark that with an ellipsis. We set the edition’s italics as italics and its double hyphens as dashes. The year is when the work first appeared, magazine serials included, as given on Wikipedia.
We make Title, a daily puzzle that starts from opening lines like these.
| Opening words | Book | Author | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is a truth universally… | Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | 1813 |
| It was the best of times… | A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | 1859 |
| Call me Ishmael. | Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | 1851 |
| Happy families are all alike… | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | 1875 |
| In my younger and more vulnerable years… | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925 |
| There was no possibility… | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | 1847 |
| Marley was dead… | A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | 1843 |
| Alice was beginning to get very tired… | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | 1865 |
| All children, except one… | Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) | J. M. Barrie | 1911 |
| 1801—I have just returned… | Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë | 1847 |
| London. Michaelmas term… | Bleak House | Charles Dickens | 1852 |
| The Nellie, a cruising yawl… | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | 1899 |
| The studio was filled… | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | 1890 |
| “Christmas won’t be Christmas… | Little Women | Louisa May Alcott | 1868 |
| Dorothy lived in the midst… | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum | 1900 |
| The Mole had been working… | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | 1908 |
| You will rejoice to hear… | Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | 1818 |
| You don’t know about me… | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1884 |
| I am a sick man… | Notes from Underground | Fyodor Dostoevsky | 1864 |
| Whether I shall turn out… | David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | 1849 |
| There were four of us… | Three Men in a Boat | Jerome K. Jerome | 1889 |
| 3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich… | Dracula | Bram Stoker | 1897 |
| To Sherlock Holmes she… | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1891 |
Lines everyone knows
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen, 1813 · Gutenberg #1342
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
A joke dressed up as a law of nature. The chapter that follows shows who is doing the hunting.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens, 1859 · Gutenberg #98
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
Dickens stacks up opposites for a whole paragraph before he reaches London and Paris.
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville, 1851 · Gutenberg #2701
“Call me Ishmael.”
Three words, and the narrator introduces himself with an instruction instead of a statement.
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy, 1875 (trans. Constance Garnett; serial 1875, book 1878) · Gutenberg #1399
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
A rule first, then a household in confusion. The Oblonskys prove it on the next page.
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 · Gutenberg #64317
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
Nick Carraway looks back from the start, so you know the story is remembered, not lived.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë, 1847 · Gutenberg #1260
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
Bad weather and a house where Jane does not quite belong.
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens, 1843 (this edition prints the first word in capitals) · Gutenberg #46
“MARLEY was dead: to begin with.”
Dickens spends the next paragraphs insisting on it. A ghost story needs its dead man firmly dead.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, 1865 · Gutenberg #11
“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do…”
Plain boredom on a riverbank. A few lines later a White Rabbit runs past.
Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy)
J. M. Barrie, 1911 (the 1911 novel, not the 1904 play) · Gutenberg #16
“All children, except one, grow up.”
Six words state the whole premise. Barrie then goes back to explain how Wendy found out.
Lines that open on a scene
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë, 1847 · Gutenberg #768
“1801—I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.”
A dated diary entry. A new tenant, Mr. Lockwood, has just met Mr. Heathcliff.
Bleak House
Charles Dickens, 1852 (serial 1852–53) · Gutenberg #1023
“London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.”
Almost no verbs. Dickens sets the scene in fragments, like a camera panning across the city.
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad, 1899 (magazine serial 1899, book 1902) · Gutenberg #219
“The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.”
A calm yacht on the Thames, where Marlow will tell his story.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde, 1890 (magazine 1890, book 1891) · Gutenberg #174
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses…”
A painter’s studio in summer, all scent and light, before Lord Henry starts talking.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott, 1868 · Gutenberg #514
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
It starts mid-complaint, with the sisters already in the room.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum, 1900 · Gutenberg #55
“Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.”
A plain farm-country introduction. The cyclone comes later in the same chapter.
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame, 1908 · Gutenberg #289
“The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.”
Housework turns into escape: a few paragraphs on, Mole drops his brush and heads outdoors.
Voices and oddities
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley, 1818 · Gutenberg #84
“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”
Not the creature or the laboratory: a letter from an Arctic explorer to his sister.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain, 1884 (UK edition 1884, US 1885) · Gutenberg #76
“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.”
Huck talks straight to the reader in his own dialect and sends you back to Tom Sawyer.
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864 (trans. Constance Garnett) · Gutenberg #600
“I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man.”
Two self-insults in a row. The narrator puts you on edge before he says anything else.
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens, 1849 (serial 1849–50) · Gutenberg #766
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
A narrator wondering aloud whether he is the main character of his own story.
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K. Jerome, 1889 · Gutenberg #308
“There were four of us—George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency.”
The joke is in the title: three men and a dog, counted as four.
Dracula
Bram Stoker, 1897 · Gutenberg #345
“3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.”
The horror novel opens as a dull travel diary, with train times and a late arrival.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891 (story 1891, collection 1892) · Gutenberg #1661
“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.”
Watson on Irene Adler, in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first Holmes short story.
Where Title comes in
Title is a free daily puzzle for iPhone. Clue 1 is the opening line of the day’s book, a line like the ones above. Six candidate titles are listed. Tap one. A wrong pick is struck out and the next clue appears, up to six guesses. The books are public-domain classics from Project Gutenberg.
More: classic literature trivia with answers and a guide to book guessing games.
Get Title on the App StoreFrequently asked questions
- What are the most famous first lines of classic novels?
- Among the best known are “Call me Ishmael.” from Moby-Dick, “It is a truth universally acknowledged…” from Pride and Prejudice and “Happy families are all alike…” from Anna Karenina. The table above lists 23, with author and year.
- What is the shortest famous first line here?
- “Call me Ishmael.” is three words, from Moby-Dick (1851). “MARLEY was dead: to begin with.” and “All children, except one, grow up.” are not far behind.
- Are these first lines in the public domain?
- Every book here was first published before 1930, which puts it in the public domain in the United States. Copyright terms differ by country, so check the rules where you live before reusing text. Quotes from translations come from the Gutenberg translator named beside them.
- How does Title use opening lines?
- In Title, clue 1 is the opening line of that day’s book. You see six candidate titles, tap one, and a wrong pick is struck out and the next clue appears. You have six guesses.