The Best Ever Opening Paragraph in a
Novel
No live
organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions
of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by
some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its
hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years
and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright,
bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly
shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill
House, and whatever walked there, walked
alone.
--Shirley
Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House