In the beginning...

"One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away."

That was the first sentence of Willa Cather's O Pioneers. Beautiful. As she went on to describe this little prairie town, I was quickly sucked out of the present and into the story. Willa Cather is able to describe a place or person so vividly that, even if you can't picture it, you can feel it. The beginning of O Pioneers is a perfect example of that.

The first few sentences of a story often are the ones that decide whether or not you are going to continue reading. They can repel, bore you, interest or enthrall you. Maybe the reason for this is because the first paragraph of a book so often holds the essence of the author's voice.

"No one who had ever seen Cathering Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her."

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen, first two sentences. Another wonderful opening, but in a different way. While Cather's is full, strong, and sensual, Austen's is light and straightforward with a hint of satire. These two voices, which carry on throughout the entire stories, are totally different yet equally engrossing in their own ways.

"Charles Howard had the feel of a gigantic onrushing machine: You had to either climb on or leap out of the way. He would sweep into a room, working a cigarette in his fingers, and people would trail him like a pilot fish....What drew people to him was something intangible, an air about him. There was a certain inevitablility to Charles Howard, an urgency radiating from him that made people believe that the world was always going to bend to his wishes."

That's from the first paragraph of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit. Again, it carries a tone, a voice, that is unique to it's author and that gives the story it's character.

The first paragraph of a book is an indicator of an author's prevailing voice.