I am addicted to words, which probably comes as no surprise to any of you; chances are, you are similarly affected by the myriad ways in which our language can be constructed to elicit emotion, convey fact, and capture a moment in time. While most books require a few pages to really engage me, some are so brilliantly crafted that all it takes is a single sentence. One such work I’ve just begun as my next e-read: Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.
“Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.”
Care to share a favorite first sentence?