Memorable First Lines from Classic Novels

by women writers, of course ...

Welcome to another edition of the Literary Ladies Lite Sunday edition. There are lots of wonderful novels that don't grab you with the first sentence (or even the first paragraph or two), but when a book's first line is great, that bodes well for the story ahead.

Great first lines in literature lists are still pretty male-dominated, so here are some famously memorable first lines from 25 classic novels by women authors that have hooked generations of readers.

Have I left out any of your favorites? Please comment at the end and let me and other readers know.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)

In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses, above a certain rent, are women. —Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (1853)