O godzinie siódmej wieczorem w całym mieście zgasło światło – modelowe zdanie inicjalne

The sentence cited in the title begins the novel Zazdrość i medycyna (Jealousy and Medicine) by Michał Choromański, which was published in 1933. This paper aims at demonstrating that this initial statement can be considered a model one, that is a very good beginning to an epic work. Having studied the characteristics desired in an initial sentence (enumerated in both theoretical studies and style guides) and carried out stylistic and semantic analysis, the author found M. Choromański’s statement a model one. The contributing elements are as follows: 1. euphonic (the melody of the sentence manifested in a clear caesura nearly exactly in the middle in terms of the number of syllables and in classical proportions between vowels and consonants); 2. syntactic (word order and the related distribution of individual parts of the sentence, dynamism of the statement); 3. semantic (introducing the reader to the centre of extraordinary events, drawing their attention and enforcing their reflection); 4. graphic (isolating the initial statement in a paragraph). Only the lexis of the examined sentence remains neutral.