不止一本书里强调到过小说开头的重要性。尤其是第一句话。 因为它直接决定了你翻开后是否会读下去。 从某种意义上说，书的封面要是差点，还未必能影响你的兴趣，但第一句话，却是内容的正式开启。如果它能成功吸引到你的注意力，也许你就会在不知不觉中追完整本书。 你是否听说过那句著名的“那是最好的时代，那是最坏的时代”（It was the best of times, it was the worst of times）？也许你听过，但你可能并不知道，这只是狄更斯著作《双城记》开头那个超级大长句的开头部分而已。 也有很多书的开头简洁到一个短句的，比如《第二十二条军规》的“那真是一见钟情。”（It was love at first sight.）还有，《末世男女》里的“雪人在黎明前醒来。”（Snowman wakes before dawn.）事实上，罕有开头长到《双城记》那个程度的经典小说。然而它的长自有独特的一面，不信你读一读，是不是有种史诗的效果和气概呢？ 看看这些被广泛阅读的名著是怎样开头的，也许能提醒你检视一下自己的文字。而且下面列举的书，时间跨度也比较大，也能反映一些时代的印记，读来相当有意思。
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
《飞越疯人院》
They’re out there.Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.
他们在外面。穿白色制服的黑男孩们比我早起，公然在大厅里性交，并赶在我能抓到他们之前把地抹干净。——肯克西（Ken Kesey） 《飞越疯人院》（One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest，1962）
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.
如果你没读过一本名为《汤姆索亚历险记》的书，你就不会认识我；不过没关系。那本书是马克吐温先生写的，他说的大部分都是真话。——马克吐温（Mark Twain） 《哈克贝利费恩历险记》（Adventures of Huckleberry Finn，1884）
Breakfast of Champions
《冠军的早餐》
This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.
这是一个濒死的星球上两个瘦得皮包骨的，孤独的，苍老的白种男人会面的故事。——小库特冯内古特（Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.） 《冠军的早餐》（Breakfast of Champions，1973）
PrideandPrejudice
《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.
这是条举世公认的真理，凡是拥有一大笔财富的单身汉，总想娶位太太。——简奥斯汀（Jane Austin） 《傲慢与偏见》（Pride and Prejudice，1813）
A Tale of Two Cities
《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–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
那是最好的时代，那是最坏的时代，那是智慧的岁月，那是愚昧的岁月，那是信仰的时期，那是怀疑的时期，那是光明的季节，那是黑暗的季节，那是希望的春天，那是失望的冬天，我们拥有眼前的一切,我们眼前一无所有，我们都在直奔天堂，我们都在直奔反方向——简而言之，那段时期充其量跟现在不相上下，某些最喧嚣的权威坚称，不管它是正是邪，都只用形容词最高级来比照。——查尔斯狄更斯（Charles Dickens） 《双城记》（A Tale of Two Cities，1859）
The Invisible Man
《隐形人》
The stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand.
寒冬二月的一天，冒着刺骨的寒风和漫天飞舞的雪花，一个陌生人早早地到来。这是今年最后一场雪。他从头到脚包裹严实，戴着厚手套的手提着个小小的黑色旅行箱，像是从布兰勃赫斯特火车站步行走过来的。——赫伯特乔治威尔斯（H. G. Wells ） 《隐形人》（The Invisible Man，1897）
The Catcher in the Rye
《麦田里的守望者》
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
你要是真想听我说，很可能你头一件想知道的事就是我在哪出生，我倒霉的童年如何度过，父母在生我之前忙活什么，以及所有大卫科波菲尔式的废话，但跟你说实话，我不想细谈。——杰罗姆大卫塞林格（ J. D. Salinger） 《麦田里的守望者》（The Catcher in the Rye，1951）
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
《银河系漫游指南》
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
—颗小小的名不经传的黄色太阳，位于银河系西螺旋臂的末端那片未被标注的闭塞之处。一颗完全无足轻重的蓝绿色小行星，运行在距它大约9800万英里的轨道上。这颗行星上由猿演化而来的生命形式原始得令人吃惊，他们仍然认为电子表是个相当精妙的点子。——道格拉斯亚当斯（Douglas Adams） 《银河系漫游指南》（The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy，1979）
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
《赌城风情画/惧恨拉斯维加斯》
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.
毒品交易开始猖獗之时，我们正在沙漠的边缘，巴斯托附近。—— 亨特S. 汤普森（Hunter S. Thompson） 《赌城风情画/惧恨拉斯维加斯 : 一场直捣美国梦的凶蛮之旅》（Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream，1971）
To Kill a Mockingbird
《杀死一只知更鸟》
When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury.
当快满十三岁的时侯，我哥哥杰姆的肘关节严重骨折。伤好之后，他对于再也玩不了橄榄球的担心也缓解了，很少再对自己的伤敏感。——哈珀李（Harper Lee） 《杀死一只知更鸟》 （To Kill a Mockingbird，1960）
The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. In this barren and desiccated land, only the small or the swift or the fierce could flourish, or even hope to survive.
旱情已经持续了一千万年，恐怖蜥蜴的统治时代早已结束。赤道上，将有一天会以“非洲”闻名的大陆上，生存的战斗已经达到新一轮残暴的高潮，胜负未分。在这一片荒芜、龟裂的土地上，只有微小、敏捷或凶猛的生物才可能繁衍甚至有希望活下去。——亚瑟查尔斯克拉克（(Arthur C. Clarke） 《2001太空漫游》（2001: A Space Odyssey，1968）
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