Beginnings of Books

Our class this Saturday will be inspired by famous first lines of books.  For example:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

(Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell)

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.

(Cannery Row: John Steinbeck)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

(Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..

(A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens)

Call Me Ishmael

(Moby-Dick: Herman Melville)

that makes five, but Taki Theodoracopulos, who Inspired this idea, suggested another one which is maybe not quite as good and is about bullfighting, hardly my favourite event, but is included none the less, so:

On August 28, 1947, in Linares, in Spain, a multimillionaire and a bull killed each other, and plunged a nation into mourning

(The Death of Manolete: Barnaby Conrad)

I shall be asking for improvisations using these first lines but NOT following the plots of the books.