First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

The Rules:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
• Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

I’m not one to recall quotes, but this is one that I actually would know, and is one of the most famous books featured on my blog. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve been meaning to.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is a classic romance.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by Leo Tolstoy.

The First Lines Friday book is:

Anna Karenina.

About the Book:

• Title: Anna Karenina
• Author: Leo Tolstoy
• Page Length: 964 pages
• Publication Date: January 1, 1878
• Publisher: Signet

Synopsis:

Acclaimed by many as the world’s greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature – with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author’s own views and convictions.

Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, ‘He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, ‘Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.’

Links: Goodreads     

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