Bulwer-Lytton, Edward: Alice, or the Mysteries. V1. 23 Jan 2010
 

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC (1803–1873), was an English politician, poet, playwright, and prolific novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and turned out a stream of bestselling novels which made him a considerable fortune. But, like many authors of the period, his style now seems florid and embellished[citation needed] to modern tastes. He coined the phrases, "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and the infamous opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night."

Excerpt
IT was towards the evening of a day in early April that two ladies were seated by the open windows of a cottage in Devonshire. The lawn before them was gay with evergreens, relieved by the first few flowers and fresh turf of the reviving spring; and at a distance, through an opening amongst the trees, the sea, blue and tranquil, bounded the view, and contrasted the more confined and home-like features of the scene. It was a spot remote, sequestered, shut out from the business and pleasures of the world; as such it suited the tastes and character of the owner.