Quotidian | Quotes | Edward Bulwer-Lytton

English novelist, playwright and politician. Most unwittingly know him for writing the now cliché "it was a dark and stormy night." Bulwer-Lytton also coined the phrases "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "pursuit of the almighty dollar."

Bulwer-Lytton was a prolific author, though given to a florid style that does not sit well with most modern readers. His famous opening line to Paul Clifford, reproduced below, inspired a professor at San Jose State University to create an annual literary contest in Bulwer-Lytton's honor. The winner is the one who writes the worst possible opening sentence to an imaginary novel.

"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."

Last year's winner wrote something so funny I feel compelled to include it here:

As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

It is doubtless Bulwer-Lytton would be proud of his legacy.