Allegra Hyde via New England Review

"A great first line can spur intense readerly attraction—provoke a compulsion to know more. Let’s call this: love at first sentence.

Allegra Hyde found herself asking what it takes to "propel a text out of a slush pile or off a bookshop shelf—for a work of literature to transform from stranger to intimate."

"What is that something, exactly? I started pondering this question in earnest last summer, after signing on to teach a class about fiction’s first lines. To 'research' in preparation for the class, I decided to ask around—to ask strangers, specifically, in the spirit of love at first sentence. And so, to the people of Twitter, I posed: “What are your favorite first lines in literature?”

(One of my favorites is Leo Tolstoy's opening lines to Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike: each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.")

Article: What Makes a Great Opening Line?