In my beginning is my end? – Opening and closing lines

A little while ago I saw a quote from the American novelist Gloria Naylor – ‘One should be able to return to the first sentence of a novel and find the resonances of the entire work.’ Other than in consciously literary works, I wondered how often this happened so I took a few favourite books from my bookcase. I found that this is not always the case and I am not so sure that it matters. The beginning of a novel should entice the reader to continue on and I think the first sentence of all these n...