First Sentences: The Pain, the Glory

Disappointed there was no mention of the ne plus ultra of first lines:

> It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night

(Also, I'm not liking "Outside, bushes shimmied, ..." because I can't read that without 'bushes' and 'shimmied' blending into something 'busheshimmy' and it breaks the flow.)