The most famous bad beginning to a novel was written by Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) in his novel Paul Clifford written in 1830. Here’s the 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.

You probably recognize that beginning from the cartoon Peanuts, because Snoopy liked to start his novel: “It was a dark and stormy night.”

If you are brave, you can read the entire first chapter here.