“It was a dark and stormy night” is far from being the worst opening line ever published (the first sentence in its entirety reads “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”). It’s just the now-famous exemplar of a prose style which, while it has certain merits, has nontheless fallen out of fashion. It’s a bit overwrought and it runs on, but Dickens was capable of far worse. “It was a dark and stormy night” is a cliche now, but Bulwer-Lytton may have been its originator.
The line really gained infamy only after Snoopy adopted it, and the comedy arises not so much from the awfulness of the line itself but from Snoopy’s persistence in using it, and in the manner in which he followed it up: “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.”
“It was a dark and stormy night” is far from being the worst opening line ever published (the first sentence in its entirety reads “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”). It’s just the now-famous exemplar of a prose style which, while it has certain merits, has nontheless fallen out of fashion. It’s a bit overwrought and it runs on, but Dickens was capable of far worse. “It was a dark and stormy night” is a cliche now, but Bulwer-Lytton may have been its originator.
The line really gained infamy only after Snoopy adopted it, and the comedy arises not so much from the awfulness of the line itself but from Snoopy’s persistence in using it, and in the manner in which he followed it up: “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.”