Top Ten Favorite Beginnings and Endings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there! http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

This week’s topic is

1. Pride & Prejudice (beginning)

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

2. The Great Gatsby (ending)

And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

3. Rebecca (beginning)

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . . I came upon it suddenly; the approach masked by the unnatural growth of a vast shrub that spread in all directions . . . There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the gray stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.

4. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone (beginning)

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.

5. Anna Karenina (beginning)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

6. Gone with the Wind (ending)

I’ll think of it all tomorrow at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.

7. Frankenstein (ending)

He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

8. The Book Thief (beginning)

First the colours, Then the humans, Thats how I usually see things, Or at least, how I try. Here is a small fact, You are going to die.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (ending)

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

and finally….

10. The Book Thief (ending)

I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race–that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.

All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know. I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.

* * * A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR * * *
I am haunted by humans.

16 thoughts on “Top Ten Favorite Beginnings and Endings”

Great list! You mentioned so many fantastic titles, I enjoyed many of them (Anna Karenina, P&P, Rebecca). Been meaning to get around to Gone with the Wind, dunno when that will be though, lol…

My TTT

Fantastic list 🙂 All was well…sigh :*)

Rebecca and The Book Thief made my list too, but I like that you included longer passages from them.

YES!!! I love this. I’ve always really loved that excerpt from Anna Karenina. I remind myself of that when I read too many sad books in a row. It’s true, though. How would you write a story about people who were happy all the time?

July 30, 2013 at 8:36 pm Turn the Page Reviews says:

Does it sound awful that I actually liked the ending of that book?

Reply
- July 30, 2013 at 9:32 pm Words for Worms says:
  
  Nah. It was rather poetic as far as suicides by train go.

Wonderful list! The Book Thief is so spectacular, beginning to end! You’ve made me want to read Rebecca again!

AH! I love this list! While I’ve only read a few of these books, I definitely love the quotes you selected from Rebecca, Anna Karenina, and Gone with the Wind.

P & P and Harry Potter are some of my favorite books, and I swear The Book Thief is stalking me and demanding I read it soon. 🙂

July 30, 2013 at 8:37 pm Turn the Page Reviews says:

I actually want to reread it, but am feeling bogged down by this pile here!

Reply
- July 30, 2013 at 9:22 pm caitlinstern says:
  
  There are always more books than there are hours in the day… both a great joy and tragedy. 🙂