Feeling queasy?
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.”
This is the perfect scene-setter, from the novel that launched one of the most beloved spies ever: James Bond, who first shows up in the second paragraph of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale.
What’s that about?
“Where’s Papa going with that ax?”
A surprising first note for a children’s story – and not a promising way to start – though in Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White doesn’t shy away from the sadness that comes with befriending a pet whose life is sure to be short.
Dark and stormy
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
You’ve certainly heard this line before – at least the first part of it – even if you’ve never read Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.