I was interviewed last week by BBC Radio for a programme on first lines of novels – the programme was interested in the notoriety of Edward’s Bulwer Lytton’s famous opening line to his novel Paul Clifford: “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… etc. (it goes on for 58 words)” The line is notorious because it has led to an annual competition for silly opening lines to be named the “Bulwer Lytton Contest”. I was able to defend my great-great-great-grandfather to the interviewer by pointing out that the line was intended as a joke. There is a character in the novel – the heroine’s father – who speaks in absurd sentences like this, and clearly Bulwer Lytton intended it for comic effect.
The reality is, however, that Bulwer Lytton is rarely read nowadays because of the florid style of much of his writing. So when asked which of his works I would recommend to a new reader, I usually say his play Money, where you will find his great wit and brilliance in a form most palatable to a modern audience. Thus I am very pleased to tell you about a BBC Radio production of Money that will be broadcast on 19th June on Radio 3. It is the radio directorial debut of the well-known actor Samuel West and stars Celia Imrie, Roger Allam and Ian McDiarmid – and was recorded at Knebworth House. You’ll be surprised how many of the jokes are still funny 170 years on, especially when delivered by these wonderful actors in the spirit of fun in which they were intended.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com