Famous First Lines • Vol. 18: #21

Great books start with great beginnings! See how many of these famous first lines you recognize as Tidbits pages through our literary collection of enduring classics.

• English novelist Charles Dickens opened his 1859 novel "A Tale of Two Cities" with the line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” One of the best-selling novels of all time, it is the story of French Dr. Alexandre Manette, who was falsely imprisoned in the Bastille in Paris for 18 years before and during the French Revolution. Manette was arrested as he attempted to expose the lies and brutality of the aristocratic Evremonde brothers.

• You’ve no doubt heard the line “It was a dark and stormy night” numerous times, and you might even think it was written by cartoonist Charles Schulz, depicting his canine character Snoopy pecking away on his typewriter atop his doghouse.

Charles Schulz's cartoon character, Snoopy, pecking away on his typewriter atop his doghouse.

It was actually the first line in an 1830 novel, "Paul Clifford," written by English novelist and politician Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. It’s the story of a man leading a double life as a thief and an upscale gentleman who has no idea that he is the son of the judge who eventually sentences him to death. The famous phrase is also the first line of the popular 1962 Newbery Award-winning novel by Madeleine L’Engle, "A Wrinkle in Time."

Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author of the novel. "Paul Clifford."

• What book begins with “Call me Ishmael”? It’s the classic novel "Moby-Dick," penned by American writer Herman Melville, in 1851. Ishmael narrates the story of the fanatical quest of Captain Ahab to kill the giant white sperm whale that had bitten off Ahab’s leg at the knee on the ship Pequod’s previous voyage. Ishmael is the only one who can document the voyage, as he is the sole survivor of the wreck of the Pequod.

• "Moby-Dick" was not a popular book at the time, selling only 3,715 copies during Melville’s lifetime, with earnings of just $556 (about $250,000 in today’s dollars). Although he had written previous popular novels, Melville’s popularity plummeted after "Moby-Dick," and he became a customs inspector. Interest was revived after his death in 1891, even though the novel had been out of print for 15 years. "Moby-Dick" was reprinted and became the classic we know today. It was adapted to film in 1956, starring Gregory Peck as Ahab. According to “How Long to Read This,” the novel will take the average reader about eight hours to read.

• Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his role as widowed lawyer Atticus Finch in the 1962 drama film To Kill a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," a novel by Harper Lee.

The story of racial injustice in Alabama during the Great Depression is told through the eyes of six-year-old Scout Finch, and is loosely based on actual events in Harper Lee’s childhood. Lee opened the book with, “When he was nearly 13, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”

• “All children, except one, grow up.” Who was that one child? It’s "Peter Pan," of course, a character created by Scottish author J.M. Barrie in the early 20th century. Peter was first seen in Barrie’s 1902 novel "The Little White Bird" as a seven-day-old baby who flew from his nursery to London’s Kensington Gardens. The novel was developed into a successful play in 1904, followed by another play “Peter Pan, the Boy who Wouldn’t Grow Up.” The novel "Peter and Wendy" wasn’t published until 1911.

• It’s believed that Barrie based Peter’s character on his older brother, David, who died in an ice-skating accident one day before his 14th birthday. To his family, he was forever a boy. How old was Peter Pan? The 1911 novel stated that he “still had all his baby teeth,” which would make him much younger than the approximately 12-year-old boy we are familiar with. In 1929, Barrie gifted the copyright and royalty rights for Peter Pan to the Great Ormon Street Hospital, a London children’s hospital. Barrie passed away in 1937, but those rights continue to generate a considerable income to the hospital.

• “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” That was the question asked by Fern Arable in the 1952 children’s novel Charlotte’s Web. Fern soon learned what happens to the runt of a litter of piglets, but her father relented and allowed her to keep the pig, whom she promptly named Wilbur and began feeding from a bottle. The New York Times’ review in 1952 called the book “just about perfect.”

"Charlotte's Web," by E.B. White, was released in 1952.

Seven years earlier, the author E.B. White had released his first children’s book, Stuart Little, about a mouse-like human boy which began, “When Mrs. Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse.”

E.B. White's first children's book, "Stuart Little" was released seven years before "Charlotte's Web."

• “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.” And so, begins "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," the 1950 fantasy novel by British writer and theologian C.S. Lewis, the first in a series of seven books known as “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Forced to leave London during the bombings of World War II, the children are taken in by a professor in the English countryside. When Lucy hides in a wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek, she discovers the magical world of Narnia. Her three siblings later accompany her and encounter wolves, talking animals, an evil white witch, and a powerful lion named Aslan. Lewis began work on the sequel Prince Caspian almost immediately after completing the first, completing it less than a year after "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

• The 1938 classic Gothic novel "Rebecca," by Daphne du Maurier begins with, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

The narrator is speaking of the English estate of Mr. and Mrs. deWinter, where widower Maxim deWinter brings his new bride after a whirlwind courtship of less than a month. The narrator is the new Mrs. deWinter who lives in the shadow of Maxim’s glamorous first wife, Rebecca. The unfriendly and domineering housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, had been Rebecca’s family’s maid since Rebecca was a small child, and is fanatical about preserving the memory of her dead mistress. The popular novel has been in print continuously since 1938 and has been adapted into numerous films and television productions. □

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