I’ve been taking part in Microblogvember by posting a daily quote which includes the prompt word, and today the random word generator selected the one, singular word which allows me to use the one, singular opening line in all of American literature. What are the odds?*

There can be little debate that Moby-Dick is one of (if not the) greatest of American novels, and I think we can all agree that the opening line is the most iconic of them all. But is it the greatest opening line in all of English language literature? What competition does it have? Perhaps “It was the best of times…” or “In a hole in the ground…”?

I might have to go with “It is a truth universally acknowledged…”

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* The odds are small.