A book beginning arouses interest, creates excitement and arouses curiosity. We introduce you to the ten most beautiful book beginnings.
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The first sentence of a book has a magical power. It draws the reader into the story, arouses curiosity and immerses the reader in a new world. Book beginnings are of great importance, because they shape the first impression and often decide whether we continue reading or put the book aside. But what makes a good book beginning?
The first sentences of a book arouse interest, arouse curiosity and create suspense. We present the ten most beautiful ones. © Andreas Berheide/Shotshop/Imago
Writing the beginning of a novel is anything but easy. There are writing guides that help you write novels. Some guides advise not to start with a literal speech, while others prefer to do so in order to immediately draw the reader directly into the action. Some book beginnings are rather short, some long, full of convoluted sentences. With current new releases, there is also no real pattern as to what makes a perfect book beginning.
It was still early in the morning when the freight train with paper wood from Norrland reached the Tomteboda marshalling yard.
Erik Axl Sund "Forest Grave"
As an example, two current crime bestsellers may apply, whose beginnings could not be more different.
"If you would please come with me, mesdames et messieurs!"
Volker Klüpfel, Michael Kobr "The Despicable – The Revenge of Monsieur Lipaire"
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The first sentence of a book is more than just a sentence. With this, the author presents himself to the reader. Here it is decided whether he wants to continue reading or put the book down. In an article by Deutschlandfunk, Norbert Miller's anthology "Beginnings of Novels" (promotional link) is cited as the most important study on this topic. Even though the book was published in 1965, it is considered a standard work for the beginnings of novels.
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Karl May and Kafka are famous for their first movements
According to Deutschlandfunk, the first sentence also reveals something about the way the novel is made. Even though the Winnetou novels have been viewed critically in recent months, many of Karl May's beginnings show how he saw his world and brought some parts of the world together so that they made sense in his books.
Whenever I think of the Indian, the Turk comes to mind.
Karl May "Winnetou I"
Many authors do not think of the first sentence of the novel at the beginning, but only at the end. After graduation, it is often easier to get started. But according to some editors, the book should also deliver what the first sentence promises. Therefore, the advice is often to open the book in the first third and read a chapter beginning there. If this phrase continues to attract the reader's interest, the story has potential.
The most beautiful first movement is by Günter Grass
In 2007, a competition under the theme "The Most Beautiful First Sentence" was held by the German Language Initiative and the Reading Foundation. More than 17,000 people from different age groups and from all over the world took part. Interestingly, however, Franz Kafka, who is considered the master of the first movement, only made it to second place.
Ilsebill added salt.
Günter Grass "Der Butt"
The ten most beautiful book beginnings
- "This inscription was written on the glass door of a small shop, but of course it only looked like that if you looked out into the street from inside the dim room through the window." (Michael Ende, "The Neverending Story" – promotional link)
- "When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from restless dreams, he found himself transformed into a monstrous vermin in his bed." (Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" – promotional link)
- "Alice was beginning to get tired of sitting still beside her sister on the side of the brook and doing nothing; for she had glanced once or twice at the book in which her sister was reading, but there were no pictures or conversations printed anywhere—"and what is the use," Alice said to herself, "in which there are no pictures or conversations at all?" (Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland" – promotional link)
- "It was the best and the worst time, a century of wisdom and nonsense, an epoch of faith and unbelief, a period of light and darkness: it was the spring of hope and the winter of despair; We had everything, we had nothing in front of us; we were all heading for heaven and all of them were heading in the opposite direction – in a word, this time was so similar to ours that its most noisy representatives, for better or for worse, only wanted the superlative applied to it." (Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities" – promotional link)
- "Not long ago, in a place in La Mancha whose name I do not want to remember, there lived a Junker, one of those who have a spear in a lance, an old tart, a gaunt horse and a greyhound to hunt. A bowl of soup with a little more cow than mutton in it, most evenings meatcake made from the leftovers from noon, miserable bone remains on Saturday, lentils on Friday, a dove as an encore on Sunday – the full three-quarters of his income consumed; the rest went for a doublet of plush, velvet trousers for the holidays with matching slippers of the same fabric, and the weekdays he considered it an honour to wear his local farmer's scarf – but at its finest!" (Miguel de Cervantes, "Don Quixote" – promotional link)
- "All but one of the children grow up." (J. M. Barrie, "Peter Pan" – promotional link)
- "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley at No. 4 Privet Drive prided themselves on being completely normal, very proud in fact." (J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" – promotional link)
- "In Westphalia, in the castle of the Lord Baron von Thunderdentronckh, there lived a young man in the past, an exceptionally gentle and kind-hearted person, lovingly loved by nature, with a face that showed his good heart from afar." (Voltaire, "Candide" – promotional link)
- "I can tell you: The thing with Emil came unexpectedly to me. Actually, I had wanted to write a completely different book." (Erich Kästner, "Emil and the Detectives" – promotional link)
- "Call me Ishmael." (Herman Melville, "Moby Dick" – promotional link)