evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

Hi Espeland

For a distinguished writer anything is possible.

CB

evening is the subject of the sentence. You certainly don't want a preposition before it!

You could optionally add the, however. The evening of a hot day ...

*to start to doing something is unusual, as you say. That's because it's wrong -- for the intransitive use of start. But note that Steinbeck is using the transitive form of start

Thank you very much concerning the construction with "to start to..".

But as to the article of "evening", that astonishes me a bit.

CalifJimevening is the subject of the sentence. You certainly don't want a preposition before it!

You could optionally add the, however. The evening of a hot day ...

You don't want to

It doesn't work to omit the article with big tower because tower is a concrete noun.
It works to omit the with evening because evening is an abstract noun. (You can't actually touch an evening as if it were an object.)

Abstract nouns in English very frequently appear without an article, especially as the subjects of sentences.

Faith

CalifJim
Faith is a virtue.
Sunset comes early in December.
Morning is Alice's favorite time of day.
Love makes the world go round.
Haste makes waste.
Worry can give you gray hair.
Honesty is its own reward.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Spring is Jane's favor

Then I assume you'll insist that the following has to be The sunshine.

Sunshine streamed in through the windows and brightened the entire room.

So I give up. You'll have to wait for someone else to discuss it. I don't know what else to say.

CJ

EspelandBut as to the article of "evening", that astonishes me a bit.

Hi Esplenad

The lack of an article may astonish others as well. That's what I really meant in my first post. Unfortunately the only person who could tell us why there is no article is dead. That's why I think we can just say that Steinbeck has applied poetic licence to prose.

CB,

I hate to disagree, because your comments are always so very helpful and appropriate, and you are such a valuable resource on the forum.

Nevertheless, I don't think any poetic license whatever is involved here. I believe the explanation lies elsewhere. The sentence in question sounds perfectly prosaic (grammatically) to my ear, though I can see how the poetic imagery

I agree with CJ.

Here's another example with the word evening. I can easily imagine someone saying something like the following (in everyday English!) to refer to the fact that dusk/sunset arrived an hour earlier than usual after the clocks had been set forward an hour (Daylight Saving Time):

Evening arrived an hour earlier yesterday.

EDIT:
By

Ok, I think I have to just accept that it is how it is...to me, leaving out the article was so astonishing here because in "evening of a hot day", the evening is defined. And obviously this phenomenon occurs more frequently when the abstract noun is subject or at the beginning of the sentence. Personally, I usually make a difference in meaning between the sentences "I feel the sunshine" (I know w