Lists of Bests: American Book Review's "100 Best First Lines from Novels" http://www.listsofbests.com/list/32274 The American Book Review, founded in 1977, is "an internationally circulated bimonthly print journal that specializes in reviews of frequently neglected published works of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism." In 2006, they chose what they thought were the 100 best first lines from novels. This is a list of those novels. Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:12:33 GMT en-us 0 50 100 50 0 Moby-Dick: or, The Whale http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3534 <div id="position">1</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3534"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142000086.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Herman Melville</div> Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15587 <div id="position">2</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/15587"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0553213105.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jane Austen</div> Gravity's Rainbow http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3014 <div id="position">3</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3014"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140283382.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Thomas Pynchon</div> One Hundred Years of Solitude http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/767 <div id="position">4</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/767"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060531045.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez</div> Lolita http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18659 <div id="position">5</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18659"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679723161.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1123304346_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Vladimir Nabokov</div> Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3758 <div id="position">6</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3758"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0143035002.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Leo Tolstoy</div> Finnegans Wake (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3451 <div id="position">7</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3451"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141181265.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> Nineteen Eighty-four (Penguin Modern Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/499994 <div id="position">8</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/499994"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/014118776X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by George Orwell</div> A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3517 <div id="position">9</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3517"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0141439602.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charles Dickens</div> Invisible Man http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18757 <div id="position">10</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18757"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679732764.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1056464902_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ralph Ellison</div> Miss Lonelyhearts http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2744685 <div id="position">11</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Nathanael West</div> Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/159568 <div id="position">12</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/159568"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0520228383.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Mark Twain</div> The Trial http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24692 <div id="position">13</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24692"><img src="http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/0805210407.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1122576327_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Franz Kafka</div> If on a winter's night a traveler http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4121 <div id="position">14</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4121"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0156439611.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1056422689_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Italo Calvino</div> Murphy (Beckett, Samuel) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24189 <div id="position">15</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/24189"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0802150373.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Samuel Beckett</div> The Catcher in the Rye http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/7091 <div id="position">16</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/7091"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0316769177.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by J.D. Salinger</div> A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3716 <div id="position">17</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3716"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142437344.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Oxford World's Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64945 <div id="position">18</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64945"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/019283620X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ford Madox Ford</div> The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Everyman's Library) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2483886 <div id="position">19</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2483886"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0460877631.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Laurence Sterne</div> David Copperfield (Modern Library Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19152 <div id="position">20</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19152"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679783415.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Charles Dickens</div> Ulysses (Vintage International) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18652 <div id="position">21</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18652"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0679722769.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by James Joyce</div> Paul Clifford http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2779662 <div id="position">22</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2779662"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/01WF9XRG32L.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton</div> The Crying of Lot 49 http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1318 <div id="position">23</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1318"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060931671.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1056414511_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Thomas Pynchon</div> City of Glass (The New York Trilogy, Vol 1) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2595 <div id="position">24</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2595"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0140097317.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1138672753_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Paul Auster</div> The Sound and the Fury http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18742 <div id="position">25</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18742"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679732241.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Faulkner</div> Beloved http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/28911 <div id="position">26</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/28911"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1400033411.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Toni Morrison</div> Don Quixote (P.S.) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1359 <div id="position">27</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1359"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060934344.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Miguel de Cervantes</div> The Stranger http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18614 <div id="position">28</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18614"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679720200.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V46690014_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Albert Camus</div> Waiting http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2475057 <div id="position">29</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ha Jin</div> Neuromancer http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12857 <div id="position">30</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12857"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0441569595.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Gibson</div> Notes from Underground http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18780 <div id="position">31</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18780"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/067973452X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Fyodor Dostoevsky</div> The Unnamable (Modern Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/574897 <div id="position">32</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/574897"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/9626343370.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Samuel Beckett</div> The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family's Progress (American Literature Series) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30310 <div id="position">33</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/30310"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1564780880.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Gertrude Stein</div> The End of the Road http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/342578 <div id="position">34</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/342578"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000E65FQE.01-AUW7D269MM6KW._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by John Barth</div> Galatea 2.2: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6426 <div id="position">35</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6426"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0312423136.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Richard Powers</div> J.R. http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/407380 <div id="position">36</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by William Gaddis</div> Mrs. Dalloway http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4141 <div id="position">37</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/4141"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0156628708.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Virginia Woolf</div> Slaughterhouse-Five http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12379 <div id="position">38</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/12379"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440180295.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by KURT VONNEGUT</div> Paradise (Oprah's Book Club) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14095 <div id="position">39</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/14095"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0452280397.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1138681567_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Toni Morrison</div> Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3723 <div id="position">40</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3723"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0142437964.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Marcel Proust</div> Chromos http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2779669 <div id="position">41</div><div class="place-image-placeholder"><span class="qm">*</span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Felipe Alfau</div> The Debut http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/406030 <div id="position">42</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/406030"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679727124.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Anita Brookner</div> Pale Fire http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18665 <div id="position">43</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18665"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679723420.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1122553698_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Vladimir Nabokov</div> Their Eyes Were Watching God http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1316 <div id="position">44</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1316"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060931418.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Zora Neale Hurston</div> Ethan Frome (Signet Classics) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13946 <div id="position">45</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13946"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0451527666.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Edith Wharton</div> Alphabetical Africa (New Directions Book) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2599002 <div id="position">46</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/2599002"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0811205320.01-A1KTD478YXKD7V._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Walter Abish</div> The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia) http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/45519 <div id="position">47</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/45519"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060764945.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by C. S. Lewis</div> The Old Man and the Sea http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64500 <div id="position">48</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/64500"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0099908409.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Ernest Hemingway</div> The Crow Road http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/8276 <div id="position">49</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/8276"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0349103232.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Iain Banks</div> Middlesex: A Novel http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6406 <div id="position">50</div><div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6406"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0312422156.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"> by Jeffrey Eugenides</div>