It was a dark and stormy night
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The phrase "It was a dark and stormy night", made famous by comic strip artist Charles M. Schulz, was originally penned by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton as the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The phrase itself is now understood as a shorthand for a certain broad style of writing, characterized by a self-serious attempt at dramatic flair; the imitation of formulaic styles; an extravagantly florid style; and run-on sentences. Bulwer-Lytton's original opening sentence serves as example:
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.
[Free eBook: Paul Clifford] at Project Gutenberg
Although anyone can write in this style, achieving the worst effects takes skill. Thus the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University, in which the worst examples of "dark and stormy night" writing are recognized. The winning sentence of the 2002 contest, written by Rephah Berg of Oakland, California, explores the theme of troubled love:
On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky, not quite a roller-coaster ride but more like when the toilet-paper roll gets a little squashed so it hangs crooked and every time you pull some off you can hear the rest going bumpity-bumpity in its holder until you go nuts and push it back into shape, a degree of annoyance that Angela had now almost attained.
[http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2002.htm]
In popular culture
- In the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, the character Snoopy was often shown to be starting yet another of many novels with the canonical phrase.
- In "The Royale", an episode of , the phrase appears as the opening line to the fictitious novel Hotel Royale.
- A Wrinkle in Time begins with this line.
See also
External links
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