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. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels." The contest was initiated in 1982 by Scott Rice and is named "in honor" of English novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, source of the much quoted first line "It was a dark and stormy night"; in full, Bulwer-Lytton's sentence runs:
- 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. -Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
See also
External links
Last updated: 08-25-2005 01:55:54
