In the beginning

 The first impression, they say,  is the last impression. Well, as for me, I do no think so. First impressions, well, do not they mostly relate to mere looks which are, except for babies, mostly made-up these days? In fact, so much is the warpaint that often a complete room, at least a wall or two could comfortably be painted with it.

Well, the only exception to my impression that the first look hardly matters would be novels. In a novel, the very first sentence is focally important. It sets the very tone of the novel. It often gives away the theme, too.

"All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", is how "Anna Karenina" begins. The very first sentence tells you that the novel is about family as an institution and its pathologies. Indeed, that is what the novel deals with. Very many unhappy families, mind you, not mere marriages, we meet in the novel.  The novel begins with Anna's brother's family problems, and ends with the total annihilation of Anna's.

Remember the beginning of Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities"? "It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times" is the first sentence in the novel. This parallelism in the first sentence continues for almost a page length paragraph. Thus, right in the beginning, we are introduced to the convulsive era of the French revolution and its thoughtless excesses that, in a way, merely exchanged the victimiser/victim roles, while rampant victimisation in a new mode continued unabated. The first sentence captures this turmoil brilliantly.

Who could ever forget the first sentence of "Pride and Prejudice" which teaches you most effectively the problems first impressions create. The very first sentence tells you that on this earth, marriages are not made in heavens. Rather the matches are patched up along monetary terms and conditions. The novel opens up the class-based snobbery. It deals with knowing the self and others beyond both, the class and the first impressions which often are absolutely deceptive. No wonder, the novel depicts one of the liveliest love stories in the whole world.

Well, I can go on and on discussing the first impression of a novel as captured in the first sentence of a novel. There are very many superb examples. Our blog though has to, both,  begin, and most importantly, end efficiently. Hope it makes you curl up with a novel as it is a holiday tomorrow, and the weather prediction is that it would rain hugely!

Pratima@ For novels, the pithiest description would be, " in the beginning is the end."