''Paul Clifford'' is a novel published in
1830 by English author
Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman. The book was successful upon its release. It is best known for its opening phrase "
It was a dark and stormy night...", which helped inspire the
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
__NOTOC__
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to th ...
.
Plot
''Paul Clifford'' tells the story of a chivalrous
highwayman in the time of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Brought up not knowing his origins, he falls in with a gang of highwaymen. While disguised as a gentleman for the purposes of a
confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...
, he meets and falls in love with Lucy Brandon. Clifford is arrested for a highway robbery and brought before her uncle, Judge Brandon, for trial, where it is unexpectedly revealed that Clifford is Brandon's son.
That revelation complicates the trial, but Clifford is convicted and Judge Brandon condemns him to death. The sentence is commuted to
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
. Clifford escapes from the penal colony, and he and Lucy make their way to America together.
Famous first words
Although ''Paul Clifford'' is rarely read today, it contains one of the most widely known
incipits in English literary history: "
It was a dark and stormy night…". It is frequently invoked for its atmospheric and neo-Gothic description, often in the mystery, detective, horror and thriller genres. Because of its Romantic qualities, it has likewise become a textbook example of
purple prose
In literary criticism, purple prose is overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose i ...
.
"It was a dark and stormy night" is only the beginning of the full first sentence:
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.
See also
*''
Weir of Hermiston
''Weir of Hermiston'' (1896) is an unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is markedly different from his previous works in style and has often been praised as a potential masterpiece. It was cut short by Stevenson's sudden death in 18 ...
'' (
R. L. Stevenson's unfinished novel which was to have a similar plot
)
References
External links
(Second edition (1840))
*
{{Authority control
1830 British novels
Novels by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Fictional gentleman thieves