It was a dejected-looking little tropical town situate some forty miles or more up a hot muddy river that wound back and forward, and back again, and round about as no river ever wound and serpentined before.
The Deeply Poetic Account of a Midsummer Night’s Idyll, James Edmond
*****
By the time I reached the last word of this opening line I was already rapt. It’s an indication of my taste in literature that this line resembles the one I posted yesterday, the opener from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Yet they were decades and continents apart, these two authors: the Scottish-Australian James Edmond published his story in 1913 (in his collection A Journalist and Two Bears) and the American Steinbeck published his in 1937.
Trish I enjoy your shorts here and viewpoint, I am making note of some titles and hopefully try to get them at sometime..
Try Terry Brooks…Thank you..:)
I’m glad you enjoy them, Gerry. I haven’t read any of Terry Brooks’s works, and there are none on my bookshelves, but I’ll keep my eye out when I’m at the library.
I’m going to be so sad when you finally complete your 54 lines!
Oh, you made me smile! It’s interesting, trying to find good ones – 54 is harder to reach than I thought it would be. Many a good book doesn’t start with a good hook. I’ve read a lot of short stories and a few novels lately that are moving and memorable but not from the first line! I’ll be going away (from my computer and my bookshelves) before I get to 54, which means I’ll have to finish the last ones when I return.
Well you’ve inspired me to look back through some of my favourite novels to check out their first lines!