It was a dark and stormy night: Difference between revisions
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==Defense of prose== |
==Defense of prose== |
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In 2008, the great-great-great grandson of Bulwyr-Lytton, Henry Lytton Cobbold, participated in a debate in the town of Lytton, Canada with Scott Rice, the founder of International Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Cobbold noted that his ancestor had coined many other phrases widely used today such as "the pen is mightier than the sword", "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar".<ref> |
In 2008, the great-great-great grandson of Bulwyr-Lytton, Henry Lytton Cobbold, participated in a debate in the town of Lytton, Canada with Scott Rice, the founder of International Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Cobbold noted that his ancestor had coined many other phrases widely used today such as "the pen is mightier than the sword", "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar".<ref>{{cite news |title='Literary tragedy' of Bulwer-Lytton's dark and stormy night under debate |author=Alison Flood |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/19/2 |newspaper=Guardian |date=Tuesday 19 August 2008 |accessdate=29 May 2013}}]</ref> |
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==Modern usage== |
==Modern usage== |
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Revision as of 15:51, 30 May 2013
"It was a dark and stormy night" is an often-mocked and parodied phrase[1] written by English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the opening sentence of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.[2] The phrase is considered to represent "the archetypal example of a florid, melodramatic style of fiction writing,"[1] also known as purple prose.
The phrase comes from the original opening sentence of Paul Clifford:
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.
Writer's Digest described this sentence as "the literary posterchild for bad story starters".[3] On the other hand, the American Book Review ranked it as #22 on its "Best first lines from novels list."[4]
Defense of prose
In 2008, the great-great-great grandson of Bulwyr-Lytton, Henry Lytton Cobbold, participated in a debate in the town of Lytton, Canada with Scott Rice, the founder of International Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Cobbold noted that his ancestor had coined many other phrases widely used today such as "the pen is mightier than the sword", "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar".[5]
Modern usage
Literature
The Peanuts character Snoopy always begins his novels with the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night".[6] Cartoonist Charles Schulz made Snoopy use this phrase because "it was a cliché, and had been one for a very long time."[7] A book by Schulz, titled "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" and credited to Snoopy as author, was published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1971.[8]
It is the opening line (and paragraph) in the popular 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle:[9]
It was a dark and stormy night.
In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the trees clouds scudded frantically across the sky. Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating wraithlike shadows that raced along the ground. [10]
L'Engle biographer Leonard Marcus notes that
With a wink to the reader, she chose for the opening line of A Wrinkle in Time, her most audaciously original work of fiction, that hoariest of cliches...L'Engle herself was certainly aware of old warhorse's literary provenance as...Edward Bulwyr-Lytton's much maligned much parodied repository of Victorian purple prose, Paul Clifford.[11]
Attribution to other authors
While discussing the importance of establishing the tone of voice at the beginning of fiction, Judy Morris notes that L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time opens with "Snoopy's signature phrase"[12].
The reference book Quotation index to children's literature edited by Melanie Axel-Lute attributes the quote to Madeleine L'Engle.[13]
Music
Joni Mitchell's song Crazy Cries of Love on her album Taming the Tiger opens with "It was a dark and stormy night". In the December '98 issue of Musician, Mitchell discusses her idea of using several cliche lines in the lyrics of multiple songs on the album, such as "the old man is snoring" in the title song Taming the Tiger. Her co-lyricist, Don Fried, had read of a competition in The New Yorker to write a story opening with "It was a dark and stormy night" and was inspired to put it in the song lyrics. Mitchell states
But the second line is a brilliant deviation from the cliché: "Everyone was at the wing-ding." It's a beautiful out, but that was because it was competition to dig yourself out of a cliché hole in an original way. He never sent it in to "The New Yorker," but he just did it as an original exercise.[14]
Board Game
In the board game entitled "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" contestants are given first lines of various famous novels and must guess their origin. Originally sold independently in bookstores in the Chicago area[15], it was later picked up by the online book reading club Goodreads.com[16]
Writing contest
The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed in 1982. The contest, sponsored by the English Department at San Jose State University, recognizes the worst examples of "dark and stormy night" writing. It challenges entrants to compose "the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."[6] The "best" of the resulting entries have been published in a series of paperback books, starting with It Was a Dark and Stormy Night in 1984.[17]
See also
- The pen is mightier than the sword, another Bulwer-Lytton line
- Once upon a time
References
- ^ a b "It was a dark and stormy night". The Phrase Finder. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ^ Lytton, Edward Bulwer (1830). Paul Clifford. New York: Cassell Pub. Co. OCLC 19091989.
- ^ Petit, Zachary (January 18, 2013). "Famous First Lines Reveal How to Start a Novel". Literary Digest. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
- ^ "100 Best First Lines from Novels". American Book Review. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
- ^ Alison Flood (Tuesday 19 August 2008). "'Literary tragedy' of Bulwer-Lytton's dark and stormy night under debate". Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)] - ^ a b "About The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest". Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- ^ Foster, Thomas C. (2003). How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper-Collins. p. 74.
- ^ Schulz, Charles M. (2010). My Life with Charlie Brown. University Press of Mississippi. p. xviii.
- ^ Martin, Douglas (September 8, 2007). "Madeleine L'Engle, Writer of Children's Classics, Is Dead at 88". New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ^ L'Engle, Madeleine (1962). A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. OCLC 22421788.
- ^ Marcus, Leonard (2012). Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices. Macmillan. p. 14. ISBN 0374298971. This is an anthology of multiple biographical essays. The quote is from the introduction by the editor.
- ^ Morris, Judy (2001). Writing fiction for children: stories only you can tell. University of Illinois Press. p. 99.
- ^ Axel-Lute, Melanie (2001). Quotation index to children's literature. Libraries Unlimited. p. 75. ISBN 1563088096.
- ^ Interview with Joni Mitchell in Musician reproduced at jonimitchell.com
- ^ RUTH SOLOMON (April 3, 2008). "Bright sunny day for new game: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night". Libertyville Review.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ [1]
- ^ Rice, Scott (1984). It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The Best (?) from the Bulwer-Lytton Contest. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140075564.