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 euphemism 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, redundancies, and run-on sentences. Bulwer-Lytton's original opening sentence serves as example: This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... The Lord Lytton Novelist and politician Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (May 25, 1803–January 18, 1873) was an English novelist, playwright, and politician. ... Paul Clifford is a novel published in 1830 by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A comma splice is committed when two independent sentences are joined by a comma, such as the following (incorrect) sentence: The proper punctuation here is the semicolon: Commas are sometimes acceptable when the clauses are short and alike in form, such as (Examples from the online 1918 edition of The...

The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was formed to "celebrate" the worst extremes in this style. The contest is sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University, in which the worst examples of "dark and stormy night" writing are recognized. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a tongue-in-cheek contest that takes place annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University. ... San Jose State University San José State University, commonly shortened to San Jose State and SJSU, is the oldest university in what became the California State University system. ...

In film

"A dark and stormy night" is a common narrative cliché in horror and suspense films. Mad scientists like Dr. Frankenstein perform experiments under cover of the storm. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... Thriller films are movies that primarily use action and suspense to engage the audience. ... Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing, beaker with strange colored liquid — one popular stereotype of a mad scientist. ... Frankenstein is a 1931 horror film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. ...

In popular culture

• "The romance of the forest", written at the end of Eighteenth Century by Ann Radcliffe, master of the gothic best-seller, has the very similar phrase "The night was dark and tempestuous".
• 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, or variations of it (eg. "He was a dark and stormy knight.") The line is usually followed by something along the lines of "Suddenly, a shot rang out!".
• In "The Royale", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the phrase appears as the opening line to the fictitious novel Hotel Royale. Upon reading it, Captain Picard grimaces at the overused line, and observes, "It's not a very promising start, is it?"
• Madeleine L'Engle's children's novel A Wrinkle in Time begins with this line.
• In the 1987 film Throw Momma from the Train, one of the main characters attempts to create variations on this line including, "The night was dry, yet it was raining" and "The night was sultry," to begin his own mystery novel.
• The first draft of a fictional novel by amateurish self-styled writer Ollie Weeks, a fictional police detective and recurring character in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct mysteries, also begins with this line.
• Andrea Camilleri's Il birraio di Preston is an experimental novel where each chapter begins with the (adapted) incipit of some famous novel or play. One of the chapters begins with a translation in Sicilian dialect of this line.
• In both the 1997 Wordsworth Classic edition and Richard Pevear's 2006 translation of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, chapter 65 begins with this phrase. In the original French, the opening line of the chapter is C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre, which is more precisely translated It was a stormy and dark night.
• There are many variants of a linguistic conundrum, often told to children, one of which goes 'It was a dark and stormy night, and the brigands were in their den, and the Captain said to Antonio "tell us a story", and this is what he said. 'It was a dark and stormy night...
• Ray Bradbury's novel, Let's All Kill Constance, starts with this line.
• Radia Perlman's Network Security: PRIVATE Communication in a PUBLIC World starts with this line.

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000 (the day after Schulzs death). ... Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. ... Snoopy is the name of Charlie Browns pet beagle in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. ... The Royale is the name of an episode from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard Jean-Luc Picard is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe, the captain of the USS Enterprise-D and the Enterprise_E. He was played by British actor Patrick Stewart in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and resulting films. ... Madeleine LEngle (born November 29, 1918) is an American writer best known for her childrens books, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. ... For the movie adaptation, see A Wrinkle in Time (film) . A Wrinkle in Time is a childrens fantasy novel by Madeleine LEngle, written from 1959 to 1960[1] and published in 1962 after over forty rejections by publishers because it was, in LEngles words, too different. ... Throw Momma from the Train is a dark comedy film released in 1987. ... Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Lombino (October 15, 1926 - July 6, 2005), was a prolific American author and screenwriter. ... Andrea Camilleri (Porto Empedocle, Agrigento, 1925) is a Italian writer. ... Richard Pevear is an American-born poet and translator who frequently collaborates with his wife, Larissa Volokhonsky, on translations of Russian novels. ... Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870) was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. ... For other uses, see The Three Musketeers (disambiguation). ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Lets All Kill Constance is a mystery novel by Ray Bradbury, published in 2003. ... Radia Perlman is a software designer and network engineer sometimes referred to as the Mother of the Internet. She is most famous for her invention of the spanning-tree protocol which is fundamental to the operation of network bridges. ...

See also

• Purple prose
• The pen is mightier than the sword, another Bulwer-Lytton line
• Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

A term of literary criticism, purple prose is used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. ... An illustration of Cardinal Richelieu holding a sword, by H. A. Ogden, 1892, from The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton The pen is mightier than the sword is an adage coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. ... The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a tongue-in-cheek contest that takes place annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University. ...

External links

• The complete text of Snoopy's It Was A Dark And Stormy Night
• Link to first comic of Snoopy as a writer.