National Author Day: “It’s just words on a page (so why am I crying?)”

By Gabi Haincourt | Featured image: Alexandra Krainyukhova via Pexels

This National Authors Day, we’re celebrating unforgettable first words of literature’s greatest novels.

When you think about it, authors spend months, years or even a lifetime describing people who don’t exist. Then we, the readers, pay good money to get upset about fictional people making poor decisions.

A novel is literally just words on a page – arguably one long, drawn-out sentence. A romance is just words about people falling in love. A thriller is just words about someone having a terrible week. A horror is just words about someone making the worst possible decision in every conceivable situation. And fantasy? Just some words about someone discovering that the government is lying about dragons. 

And yet, somehow, these words can keep us awake until 3 a.m., make us cry over fictional people and leave us emotionally attached to emotionally unavailable characters who don’t exist anyway.

At its core, reading is just sitting down and looking at ink on a page. You turn the page as though you’ve accomplished something, perhaps shifting positions occasionally to convince yourself you’re still alive. It is one of the least physically active things a person can do. And yet, within minutes, you could be wandering in another land, falling in love, or seething with hatred for someone that is, quite frankly, none of your business.

The more you think about it, reading is essentially a socially acceptable form of hallucination.

But (and there is a but!) anyone who loves a good book – and a truly jaw-dropping line of literature – knows that reading is one of the most beautiful pastimes. A single sentence can transport us to another world. It can make us desperate to read on, introduce us to an unforgettable character, make us hate them, and then, somehow, make us fall in love with them. 

And it’s all down to the author – and their wild imagination. That’s the power of an author: capturing our attention in a world where it’s constantly being pulled in every direction, and writing that great first line that makes us trust them enough to turn the page.

But how well do we know these famous first lines? Take away the title, the author and the cover, and how many novels can you recognise from a single sentence?

To celebrate National Author’s Day, test your literary knowledge with six of the most recognisable opening lines in literature. How many can you guess?

Can you name the book?

1. ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’
2. ‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.’
3. ‘It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.’
4. ‘It was a pleasure to burn.’
5. ‘All children, except one, grow up.’
6. ‘In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.’

Every story starts with a great sentence, one that leads us into the worlds and minds of characters. It’s easy to remember the stories and their protagonists, but for National Author’s Day, we should appreciate the minds that brought them to life. We should remember the skill and commitment that went into making these books what they are today.

So, write down some words on a page – maybe they’ll make a great first line!

Out now: The REAL Issue

Pick up your copy on campus or read online.

Answers:

1. George Orwell, 1984
2. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
3. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
4. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
5. J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy
6. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby