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There’s something almost magical about a perfect first line. It sets the tone, hooks the reader, and sometimes becomes more famous than the book itself. Some openings are so iconic they’ve slipped into everyday language, quoted by people who’ve never even read the novel they came from.
Below are ten legendary opening lines from world literature. Read each one, take a guess, then check yourself against the reveal. It’s a fun little test of how much classic and modern fiction has actually stuck with you over the years.
1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
This rhythmic, paradoxical line has become shorthand for describing any era of contradiction and upheaval. It belongs to Charles Dickens, who used it to open his 1859 historical novel set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. The sentence actually continues much longer, piling on contrasts, but this fragment is the part everyone remembers and quotes.
The novel is A Tale of Two Cities, and it remains one of the best selling novels in history. Dickens wrote it as a serialized story, publishing it in weekly installments in his own magazine. The opening captures the entire theme of the book: a world split between London and Paris, order and chaos, hope and terror.
2. “Call me Ishmael.”
Three words, and yet this might be the most…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-09-24 07:15:00
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