Michael K. Eidson
Archmage
I'd probably put this back on the shelf if I picked it up in the store. It's not that there isn't much happening in terms of action--I'm fine with that--but rather that the prose strikes me as flat and generic. The Durrell excerpt I posted has a lot of individual character. The same would be true of a writer like Peake. The writing interests me in and of itself, as well as the questions raised. if you're writing in a more or less generic style, you've got to open with a pretty good hook to keep my attention.
The question being, however, what would an editor or agent today accept? From the Wheeler excerpt, we can see that an editor would accept a manuscript that starts without action or any overt hook. (Unless you consider the "patch of white hair" an overt hook. I don't think it is much of a hook, but maybe teens, the target audience, would.)
So we can see that editors will accept manuscripts without action or overt hooks in the beginning paragraphs. I'd think they'd be even happier to accept a manuscript with standout prose. I think the answer to your question is that today's editors or agents would accept a manuscript that starts like Justine, as long as the rest of the novel held up. Perhaps they don't receive manuscripts like that.