WATCH THAT FIRST LINE. IT’S A DOOZY!! (Or it better be!)

 

It was a dark and stormy night;

 

The first line of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel Paul Clifford is perhaps the most well-known first line ever written. Why? Because it is often considered the very worst first line ever written. In fact, it is considered such a bad first line even a dog could have written it.

To be fair, the entire first line is…

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 whic...