“WHO’S THERE?”: Yeah, I find Jenny Davidson’s comments on this list of the “best first lines of novels” more interesting than the list itself. (Both links via About Last Night.) Some thoughts:

1. You really have only three options for first sentences: in medias res, powerful description of setting, and self-conscious acknowledgment of the telling of the tale. You’ll hear, sometimes, about opening with a strong character; but as far as I can tell, that kind of opening really becomes one of the three mentioned above.

2. The first line of 1984 will be remembered long after the rest of the novel has fallen into the obscurity of the PhDs. The entire novel–and the entire theory of Communism as a revolt against human nature–is summed in that first, cold, dull, beautiful line.

3. Yeah, I don’t know why people got so into Garcia Marquez, either.

One of the all-time great first lines is Donna Tartt’s opening for The Secret History:

This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.