Well, this seems right. In the end, the final four our 2024 literary bracket is made up of Austen, Dickens, Tolkien, and Lewis. Predictable, in a way, but these are four deserving opening lines. Which two will move on to the final matchup? That’s up to you. Vote now!
Matchup #1
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
vs.
“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.”
from The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
Matchup #2
“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.
from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
vs.
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Tough choice of opening lines between tale of two cities and dawn treader. Dickens’ litany of paradoxes is memorable, intriguing, and is simply just one of the best openers in all of literature. But Lewis gets my vote here for a few reasons:
- a. I’m very biased here seeing as how my substack is about Lewis :)
- b. Lewis’ Economy of words. He tells you just enough but leaves more questions than answers
-c. I’ve heard some Lewis people adjust this line so say “there once was a boy named Clive Staples Lewis. And he almost deserved it”
I wonder if you would consider Gandalf Rules next time with the heavy hitters, leaving out the AK and the P&P to make it more competitive. Call it an NIT bracket for first lines, or a Cinderella one