Thursday, August 17, 2006

Great Beginnings!

A small exercise to get us all started!

We all know how important it is to write a first line that grabs the reader and draws them in to the story.

All these extracts are taken from the beginning of books written by Jane Austen. Which is your favourite first line or paragraph - and why?

“Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt, as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century – and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.”

“A gentleman and a lady travelling from Tonbridge towards that part of the Sussex coast that lies between Hastings and Eastbourne, being induced by business to quit the high road, and attempt a very rough lane, were overturned in toiling up its long ascent, half rock, half sand.”

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine.”

“About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of baronet’s lady with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and a large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of an equitable claim to it.”

In our first class we will take a look at the way in which Jane Austen starts her books and how she hooks the reader.

6 Comments:

Blogger Anna Campbell said...

I know, I know, it's everyone's favourite. But the Pride and Prejudice opening is just one of the best opening lines ever written, up there with the Anna Karenina one about unhappy families. I think what strikes me re-reading it is the supreme confidence of the writer. She knows what she's doing and she's making no apologies for it. That opening sets the tone superbly for the events to come and has that lovely ironic twist that illuminates JA's writing.

3:28 PM  
Blogger Susan Rix said...

I don't think P&P can be beaten either, but I also like the imagery that's conveyed in "A gentleman and a lady... " I'm not sure which book it's from but I'm looking forward to catching up with all my JA reading when this course has finished.
Sue

10:43 AM  
Blogger Editor/Writer/Dreamer said...

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine.”

Ah, to be a heroine, what a purpose. Short with so much promise like the infant.

6:12 PM  
Blogger Melanie said...

The "Pride and Prejudice" opening does it for me. I love the rhythmic quality of the sentence, which none of the other openings have. And personally, I find the narrator's statement quite tongue-in-cheek which in itself pulls me into the story.

I'm also quite intrigued by “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine." I don't know which of her books it comes from but this opening sentence certainly makes me want to read the rest of the book.

2:18 AM  
Blogger Christine Wells said...

I agree, the opening line of Pride and Prejudice is a classic--and notice it's omniscient, which I think is the easiest way to be witty, even if deep point of view is the fashion now.

I also like Emma's opening line, for the reason Carolynn states--the reader becomes certain this complacent female will be knocked off her perch very soon!

6:25 AM  
Blogger Eugene said...

I think perhaps part of the genius of the opening to Pride and Prejudice is that it is written from a point of view - this is not an all-knowing author speaking. It is rather the community of people who have unmarried daughters for whom this truth is universally acknowleged. Austen uses this technique of speaking from the point of view of one character or another throughout the novel. Now, the 2nd sentence is from the all-knowing author as it states what really is a universal fact.

8:34 PM  

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