对于作家和靠笔头养活自己的人来说，写出第一句，就是迈出了关键的一步。这几乎是把玩文字人的共识。但往往很多人都在这儿费尽心机，用力过猛。而经典之所以成为经典，一定是从开篇起就悄然埋下了种子。
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
简·奥斯丁《傲慢与偏见》
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
但凡财运俱佳的单身汉，必然想娶妻成家，这是举世公认的道理。
★点评★
这是本书所描绘的大部分人物都秉持的观点，简·奥斯丁在开头用这样一句话引出了班内特夫妇的对话，刻画出人物性格，以衬托伊丽莎白的鲜明个性。
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Albert Camus: The Stranger
阿尔贝·加缪《局外人》
Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure.
今天，妈妈死了。也许是昨天，我不知道。
★点评★
小说以这种不动声色而又蕴含内在力量的平静语调，为我们塑造了一个惊世骇俗的“荒谬的人”：对一切都漠然置之的主人公。
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Charles Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities
查尔斯·狄更斯《双城记》
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
这是最好的时代，这是最坏的时代;这是智慧的时代，这是愚蠢的时代;这是信仰的时期，这是怀疑的时期;这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节;这是希望之春，这是失望之冬;人们面前有着各样事物，人们面前一无所有;人们正在直登天堂，人们正在直下地狱。
★点评★
狄更斯的这部小说，奏响了法国大革命时期的一首悲歌。那个复杂的年代，信仰与怀疑混杂，光明与黑暗交织，希望与失望并行。这段“开头语”形象地描述了一个无比复杂的时代。
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Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man And The Sea
海明威《老人与海》
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
他是个独自在湾流中一条小船上钓鱼的老人，至今已去了八十四天，一条鱼也没逮住。
★点评★
这部备受赞誉的小说，一开头便如大海中的冰山，三分在外，七分在内，强烈地吸引着读者读下去。而这种“冰山效应”，也成为海明威作品风格的写照。
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Franz Kafka: Metamorphosis
弗兰兹·卡夫卡《变形记》
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.
一天早晨，格里高尔.萨姆沙从不安的睡梦中醒来，发现自己躺在床上变成了一只巨大的甲虫。
★点评★
这部寓言式小说，开篇便将读者引入一种惊讶与不安中，使人在一探究竟之后心生悲凉。
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Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫《洛丽塔》
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
洛丽塔，我生命之光，我欲念之火。我的罪恶，我的灵魂。洛——丽——塔：舌尖向上，分三步，从上颚往下轻轻落在牙齿上。洛。丽。塔。
★点评★
通篇几乎只由[t], [l], [s] 3个音开头的单词组成，而[t], [l] 两个音是唇齿相碰的情况下，最外向性的音节，而这种头韵(Alliteration)的运用，是英文中最典雅的写作方式之一。这也是最能在读音中体现“欲望”的音节，加上长短句错落，很有节奏感。在结尾特意强调了Lo. Lee. Ta.是为了让读者自发去读这一段，然后感受这种欲望感。(来自知乎用户@淳子)
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Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
列夫·托尔斯泰《安娜·卡列尼娜》
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
幸福的家庭都是相似的,不幸的家庭各有各的不幸。
★点评★
这部缠绵悱恻又荡气回肠的作品，开头却如此简洁，真犹如：千言万语化作一声叹息。
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Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
夏洛蒂·勃朗特《简·爱》
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
那天，出去散步是不可能了。其实，早上我们还在光秃秃的灌木林中溜达了一个小时，但从午饭时起(无客造访时，里德太太很早就用午饭)便刮起了冬日凛冽的寒风，随后阴云密布，大雨滂沱，室外的活动也就只能作罢了。
★点评★
《简·爱》是一部带有自传色彩的长篇小说，它阐述了这样一个主题：人的价值=尊严+爱。小说开头所展现给我们的场景便如女主人公的性格和遭遇：纯净如水中蕴含着矛盾和激情。
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Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights
艾米莉·勃朗特《呼啸山庄》
1801. - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist's heaven.
1801年，我刚刚拜访过我的房东回来——就是那个将要给我惹麻烦的孤独的邻居。这儿可真是一个美丽的乡间。在整个英格兰境内，我不相信我竟能找到这样一个能与尘世的喧嚣完全隔绝的地方，一个厌世者的理想的天堂。
★点评★
开头便透过一位房客的视角描绘呼啸山庄的美景，从而引出后文，一步步发现美景下的种种不谐调，使人产生强烈的探知欲望。
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Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time
普鲁斯特《追忆似水年华》
For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I'm going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me.
在很长一段时期里，我都是早早就躺下了。有时候，蜡烛才灭，我的眼皮儿随即合上，都来不及咕哝一句“我要睡着了”。半小时之后，我才想到应该睡觉。这一想，我反倒清醒过来。
★点评★
这部影响深远的意识流小说，开篇便与众不同。主人翁在蒙胧与清醒的交错之间，千思百绪集于心头，水到渠成地引出下文。
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Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin
斯托夫人《汤姆叔叔的小屋》
Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of P -- -- , in Kentucky. There were no servants present, and the gentlemen, with chairs closely approaching, seemed to be discussing some subject with great earnestness.
2月的某一天，天气依然比较寒冷。黄昏时分，在P城一间布置典雅兼作餐厅的接待室里，两位绅士相对而坐，喝着酒。他们没有要仆人在旁边侍候。他们紧挨着坐着，好像在商量什么很重要的事情。
★点评★
文章开头给读者展示了一个较为立体的场景，并将镜头对准与这个轻松惬意的场景不协调的神秘人物，使读者很想探知究竟。
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Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude
马尔克斯《百年孤独》
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.
很多年以后，奥雷连诺上校站在行刑队面前，准会想起父亲带他去参观冰块的那个遥远的下午。当时，马孔多是个20户人家的村庄，一座座土房都盖在河岸上，河水清澈，沿着遍布石头的河床流去，河里的石头光滑、洁白，活像史前的巨蛋。
★点评★
这部“再现拉丁美洲历史社会图景的鸿篇巨著”，一开篇便将读者拉入一个颇具魔幻色彩的境地。“遍布石头的河床像史前的巨蛋”，引人入胜，令人遐想。
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