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Is “it was a dark and stormy night” really such a bad opening line? Workmanlike, efficient, establishes scene and mood. Doesn’t cut to core tension the way “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” or “happy families are all alike…” do, but it’s not bad.
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Replying to @vgr
Prestige would be Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who invented the historical novel, but is now primarily remembered for a bad writing contest named after him, the opening line to the worst novel never written. bulwer-lytton.com Dickens was popular trash.
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If he'd stopped there, it would have been fine, but, "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), /1
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