MARILYN CORNWELL: July 28 2020 - Bring on that Dark and Stormy Night

Novelist Bulwer-Lytton, who coined the phraseThe pen is mightier than the sword, is also famous for that opening start to the first sentence of his novel Paul Clifford. Supposedly, the line had been around 'for donkey's years before Lytton.' That's according to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which claims Bulwer-Lytton decided to have some fun with the expression.

So here we with are with Bulwer-Lytton's sentence now synonymous with bad writing. This is in contrast to his fame and wide readership in his time. He was considered more widely read than Charles Dickens. Perhaps this is a testament to the avid readership at the time. He is known for "the pen is mightier than the sword," "the great unwashed," and "the Almighty dollar".

The contest began in 1982 at the English Department at San Jose State University. It is a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels. Here's the website and history HERE. Lots of great entries and winners through the years - notably last year's winner is from Canada.

Here is the 2019 Grand Prize entry:
"Space Fleet Commander Brad Brad sat in silence, surrounded by a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke, maintaining the same forlorn frown that had been fixed upon his face since he’d accidentally destroyed the phenomenon known as time, thirteen inches ago."

~Maxwell Archer, Mt Pleasant, Ontario, Canada

Here is the 2018 Grand Prize entry:
"Cassie smiled as she clenched John's hand on the edge of an abandoned pier while the sun set gracefully over the water, and as the final rays of light disappeared into a star-filled sky she knew that there was only one thing left to do to finish off this wonderful evening, which was to throw his severed appendage into the ocean's depths so it could never be found again--and maybe get some custard after."
~Tanya Menezes, San Jose (age 17)

Remember that Bulwer-Litton was more widely read than Dickens? There's a contest HERE for you to choose which author wrote the extracts listed.

Here's the entrance at Longwood Gardens to the magical water feature in the grotto under the main fountain building.