“It was a dark and stormy night …” Those seven little words have become a laughing stock of literature. But who wrote them and what is the rest of the sentence?
Well, ask no further. Here ya go:
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. — From the novel Paul Clifford by Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1830)
Ya know, maybe this makes me a bad writer, but I don’t think the sentence is so bad. What do you think?
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
We grow shy of that line simply because we have become more sophisticated as education progresses.
It is still a good line in its simplicity. Bram Stoker echoed it as “The Corpse ship” drifted into Whitby. Daphne du Maurier as she approached Manderley. Poe As he first touched the earth close to the grave of his mentor. Wilkie Collins, fat and bloated, collapsing into the moonstone.
Would we not be writing now if Aeschylus had not once said…. If Homer had Not Imagined …..If Aristotle had not wondered.
Lol- Give the guy a break.
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What a great comment!!! Thanks.
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I am a relative of Edward Bulwer Lytton. My maiden name is Lytton, and my younger sister named her son Edward Bulwer Lytton. Our family likes the sentence! Thanks Andrew and Chris.
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It’s a small world indeed!
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It is!
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He could have left it out. The description of the wind and rain shows that it’s stormy, and the lamps struggling against the darkness show that it’s a dark night.
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Good point. Show don’t tell.
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Reblogged this on https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Other than the present and past tense in the same scene, I agree with you. Not half bad.
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Not as good as you and I can write, but give the guy a break.
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Okay.
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I think it is excellent as first written. I think Snoopy made it a meme.
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Yup. Snoopy made it his own.
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I think it was probably good when it was written, but, because it was good, it became a cliche, then a joke. Pity!
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He wrote a lot of books and a lot of poetry. Not bad for an aristocrat.
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