Famous first lines

Aldous Huxley taught Eric Blair (George Orwell) at Eton. It's a fair chance that, just as Huxley was affected by 1984, so Orwell was affected by Brave New World. It's noticeable that both use the same technique in the opening sentence.

Brave New World:

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.

1984:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

"Only" 34 stories... clocks striking 13... we are not in our normal world.



Brave New World was published first.