Paul Clifford - Appearance in Other Works

Appearance in Other Works

• The opening of the book was the inspiration for San Jose State University's annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which celebrates the worst in English writing. The contest includes a "Dark and Stormy night" section, which is intended to find the worst introduction that can be made from the beginning of that sentence. The competition highlights literary achievements of the most dubious sort; "We want writers with a little talent but no taste," says San Jose State English Professor Scott Rice.
• The line was also frequently parodied in Charles Schulz' Peanuts comic strip by showing Snoopy repeatedly starting a novel that starts with the first part of the opening sentence.
• The science fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle also borrows, in a somewhat subversive manner, the opening line.
• In the book Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. recounts with enthusiasm his reading of Paul Clifford while at sea off the California coast.
• It is also referenced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Royale". The book the episode revolves around starts with the opening line.