10 Best Opening Lines in Novels

Personal choices from the Telegraph's 100 best opening lines in fiction. 1) "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) 2) “Call me Ishmael.” Herman Melville: Moby-Dick (1851) 3) "Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." Albert Camus: The Stranger (1946) 4) "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier 5) "What’s it going to be then, eh?'" A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess 6) “On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back.” I am Legend, Richard Matheson 7) "Marley was dead, to begin with." A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 8) “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.” Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915) 9) I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 10) "I don’t know how other men feel about their wives walking out on them, but I helped mine pack." Breaking Up, Bill Manville