August 6, 2004

Dark and Stormy Prose

Following are three of the winning entries from this year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, held annually by the English department at San Jose State University to honor the worst opening sentence of an imaginary novel. The contest memorializes the Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who began his 1830 novel Paul Clifford with the line "It was a dark and stormy night." The full list of winners is available online at http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2004.htm

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