1001 First Lines

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."- Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

"Call me Ishmael." -Moby Dick by Herman Melville

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirtee...