Pretty self explanatory. Post your favourite beginnings in novels here.

From Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons:
"Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985.:
Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face."

Great way to set the scene for the entire book, and also a great way to introduce an awesome character.

From Choke by Chuck Palahniuk:
"If you're going to read this, don't bother.
After a couple pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece.
Save yourself.
There has to be something better on television. Or since you have so much time on your hands, maybe you could take a night course. Become a doctor. You could make something out of yourself. Treat yourself to a dinner out. Color your hair.
You're not getting any younger."

Chuck's really harsh on us, himself and his characters and it really drew me in... this being the first novel I ever read by him. I love beginnings like this though, so I'm bias.

And the last, from Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut:
"This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it 'Slapstick' because it is grotesque, situational poetry-- like the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago.
It is about what life feels like to me."

I love the idea of someone calling their own life Slapstick, and if you've read any Vonnegut at all, you'll realize he's a very funny satirical man in that way... all the time. By far my favourite author but yeah.

Add more when I think of some. Go ahead.

"It was a dark and stormy night." Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time. I'm sorry, i just had to put that quote in there. I like that. There's another beginning, which is more than a sentence, i assure you all, but if you got a look at what my screen is showing... seriously, its messed. I hope it's not PTF.

Haha, dunno.
But what I do know is that if you're talking classic, it was a dark and stormy night ranks up there.

Once upon a time........

I like the beginning of Weaveworld by Clive Barker. It talks about how nothing ever really begins, because the roots can be traced back farther and farther, and relates life to a weaving. I'll see if I can find the beginning online later.

In a land far, far away...

well i really like the novel of the count of monte cristo . i was not able to finish it but i like its first chapters. full of dramas and beautiful stories.