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LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON, B...

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 186 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LYTTON, See also:EDWARD See also:GEORGE See also:EARLE LYTTON, BULWERLYTTON, 1ST See also:BARON (1803-1873) , See also:English novelist and politician, the youngest son of See also:General See also:William Earle Bulwer of Heydon IIall and See also:Wood Dalling, See also:Norfolk, was See also:born in See also:London on the 25th of May 1803. He had two See also:brothers, William (1799-1877) and See also:Henry (18ot-1872), afterwards See also:Lord Dalling (q.v.). Bulwer's See also:father died when the boy was four years old. His See also:mother, See also:Elizabeth See also:Barbara, daughter of See also:Richard See also:Warburton Lytton of Knebworth, See also:Hertfordshire, after her See also:husband's See also:death settled in London. Bulwer, who was delicate and neurotic, gave See also:evidence of precocious See also:talent and was sent to various boarding See also:schools, where he was always discontented, until in the See also:establishment of a Mr Wallington at See also:Ealing he found in his See also:master a sympathetic and admiring listener. Mr Wallington induced him to publish, at the See also:age of fifteen, an immature See also:volume entitled See also:Ishmael and other Poems. About this See also:time Bulwer See also:fell in love, and became extremely morbid under enforced separation from the See also:young See also:lady, who was induced by her father to marry another See also:man. She died about the time that Bulwer went to See also:Cambridge, and he declared that her loss affected all his after-See also:life. In 1822 he entered Trinity See also:College, Cambridge, but removed shortly afterwards to Trinity See also:Hall, and in 1825 won the See also:Chancellor's See also:medal for English See also:verse with a poem on " See also:Sculpture." In the following See also:year he took his B.A. degree and printed for private circulation a small volume of poems, Weeds and See also:Wild See also:Flowers, in which the See also:influence of See also:Byron was easily traceable. In 1827 he published O'See also:Neill, or the See also:Rebel, a See also:romance, in heroic couplets, of patriotic struggle in See also:Ireland, and in 1831 a metrical See also:satire, The Siamese Twins. These juvenilia he afterwards ignored. Meanwhile he had begun to take his See also:place in society, being already known as a See also:dandy of considerable pretensions, who had acted as second in a See also:duel and experienced the fashionable See also:round of flirtation and intrigue.

He See also:

purchased a See also:commission in the See also:army, only to sell it again without undergoing any service, and in See also:August 1827 married, in opposition to his mother's wishes, Rosina See also:Doyle See also:Wheeler (1802-1882), an Irish beauty, niece and adopted daughter of General See also:Sir See also:John Doyle. She was a brilliant but passionate girl, and upon his See also:marriage with her, Bulwer's mother withdrew the See also:allowance she had hitherto made him. He had £200 a year from his father, and less than £See also:loo a year with his wife, and found it necessary to set to See also:work in See also:earnest. In the year of his marriage he published See also:Falkland, a novel which was only a moderate success, but in 1828 he attracted general See also:attention with See also:Pelham, a novel for which he had gathered material during a visit to See also:Paris in 1825. This See also:story, with its intimate study of the dandyism of the age, was immediately popular, and See also:gossip was busy in identifying the characters of the romance with the leading men of the time. In the same year he published The Disowned, following it up with Devereux (1829), See also:Paul See also:Clifford (183o), See also:Eugene See also:Aram (1832) and See also:Godolphin (1833). All these novels were designed with a didactic purpose, some-what upon the See also:German See also:model. To embody the leading features of a See also:period, to show how a criminal may be reformed by the development of his own See also:character, to explain the secrets of failure and success in life, these were the avowed See also:objects of his See also:art, and there were not wanting critics ready to See also:call in question his sincerity and his morality. See also:Magazine controversy followed, in which Bulwer was induced to take a See also:part, and about the same time he began to make a See also:mark in politics. He became a follower of See also:Bentham, and in 1831 was elected member for St Ives in See also:Huntingdon. During this period of feverish activity his relations with his wife See also:grew less and less satisfactory. At first she had cause to complain that he neglected her in the pursuit of See also:literary reputation; later on his disregard became rather active than passive.

After a See also:

series of distressing See also:differences they decided to live apart, and were legally separated in 1836. Three years later his wife published a novel called Cheveley, or the Man of See also:Honour, in which Bulwer was bitterly caricatured, and in See also:June 1858, when her husband was See also:standing as See also:parliamentary See also:candidate for Hertfordshire, she appeared at the hustings and indignantly denounced him. She was consequently placed under See also:restraint as insane, but liberated a few See also:weeks later. For years she continued her attacks upon her husband's character, and outlived - ilt by nine years, dying at Upper See also:Sydenham in See also:March 1882. There is little doubt that her passionate See also:imagination gravely exaggerated the See also:tale of her wrongs, though Bulwer was certainly no model for husbands. It was a See also:case of two undisciplined natures in domestic bondage, and the consequences of their See also:union were as inevitable as they were unfortunate. Bulwer, meanwhile, was full of activity, both literary and See also:political. After representing St Ives, he was returned for See also:Lincoln in 1832, and sat in See also:parliament for that See also:city for nine years. He spoke in favour of the Reform See also:Bill, and took the leading part in securing the reduction, after vainly essaying the See also:repeal, of the newspaper See also:stamp duties. His pamphlet, issued when the Whigs were dismissed from See also:office in 1834, and entitled " A See also:Letter to a See also:Late See also:Cabinet See also:Minister on the Crisis," was immensely influential, and Lord See also:Melbourne offered him a lordship of the See also:admiralty, which he declined as likely to interfere with his activity as an author. At this time, indeed, his See also:pen was indefatigable. Godolphin was followed by The Pilgrims of the See also:Rhine (1834), a graceful fantasy, too German in sentiment to be quite successful in See also:England, and then in The Last Days of See also:Pompeii (1834) and See also:Rienzi (1835) he reached the height of his popularity.

He took See also:

great pains with these stories, and despite their lurid colouring and mannered over-emphasis, they undoubtedly indicate the high-See also:water mark of his talent. Their reception was enthusiastic, and Ernest Maltravers (1837) and Alice, or the Mysteries (1838) were hardly less successful. At the same time he had been plunging into journalism. In 1831 he undertook the editorship of the New Monthly, which, however, he resigned in the following year, but in 1841, the year in which he published See also:Night and See also:Morning, he started the Monthly See also:Chronicle, a semi-scientific magazine, for which he wrote Zicci,, an unfinished first draft afterwards See also:expanded into Zanani (1842). As though this multifarious fecundity were not sufficient, he had also been busy in the See also:field of dramatic literature. In 1838 he produced The Lady of See also:Lyons, a See also:play which See also:Macready made a great success at Covent See also:Garden: in 1839 See also:Richelieu and The See also:Sea See also:Captain, and in 1840• See also:Money. All, except The Sea Captain, were successful, and this solitary failure he revived in 1869 under the See also:title of, The Rightful See also:Heir. Of the others it may be said that, though they abound in examples of strained sentiment and false See also:taste, they have nevertheless a certain theatrical flair, which has enabled them to survive a whole library of See also:stage literature of greater sincerity and truer feeling. The Lady of Lyons and Money have See also:long held the stage, and to the last-named, at least, some of the most talented of See also:modern comedians have given new life and See also:probability. In 1838 Bulwer, then at the height of his popularity, was created a See also:baronet, and on succeeding to the Knebworth estatein 1843 added Lytton to his surname, under the terms of his mother's will. From 184r to 1852 he had no seat in parliament, and spent much of his time in See also:continental travel. His literary activity waned somewhat, but was still remarkably alert for a man who had already done so much.

In 1843 he issued The Last of the Barons, which: many critics have considered the most historically See also:

sound and generally effective of all his romances; in 1847 See also:Lucretia, or the See also:Children of the Night, and in 1848 Harold, the last of the Saxon See also:Kings. In the intervals between these heavier productions he ' had thrown off a volume of poems in 1842, another of See also:translations from See also:Schiller in 1844, and a satire called The New Timm in 1846, in which See also:Tennyson, who had just received a See also:Civil See also:List See also:pension, was bitterly lampooned as school See also:miss See also:Alfred," with other unedifying amenities; Tennyson retorted with some verses in which he addressed Bulwer-Lytton as " you See also:band-See also:box." These poetic excursions were followed by his most ambitious work in See also:metre, a romantic epic entitled See also:King See also:Arthur, of which he expected much, and he was greatly disappointed by its apathetic reception. Having experienced some rather See also:acid See also:criticism, questioning the morality of his novels, he next essayed a See also:form of fiction which he was determined should leave no loophole to suspicion, and in The Caxtons (1849), published at first anonymously, gave further See also:proof of his versatility and resource. My Novel (1853) and What will he do with it? were designed to prolong the same See also:strain. In 1852 he entered the political field anew, and in the conservative See also:interest. He had differed from the policy of Lord John See also:Russell over the See also:corn See also:laws, and now separated finally from the liberals. He stood for Hertfordshire and was elected, holding the seat till 1866, when he was raised to the See also:peerage as Baron Lytton of Knebworth. His eloquence gave him the See also:ear of the See also:House of See also:Commons, and he often spoke with influence and authority. In 1858 he was appointed secretary for the colonies. In the House of Lords he was comparatively inactive. His last novels were A See also:Strange Story (1862), a mystical romance with spiritualistic tendencies; The Coming See also:Race (1871), The Parisians (1873)—both unacknowledged at the time of his death; and Kenelm Chillingly, which was in course of publication in See also:Blackwood's Magazine when Lytton died at See also:Torquay on the 18th of See also:January 1873. The last three of his stories were classed by his son, the 2nd Lord Lytton, as a trilogy, animated by a See also:common purpose, to exhibit the influence of modern ideas upon character and conduct.

Bulwer-Lytton's attitude towards life was theatrical, the See also:

language of his sentiments was artificial and over-decorated, and the See also:tone of his work was often so flamboyant as to give an impression of false taste and See also:judgment. Nevertheless, he built up each of his stories upon a deliberate and careful framework: he was assiduous according to his See also:lights in See also:historical See also:research; and conscientious in the details of workmanship. As the See also:fashion of his See also:day has become obsolete the immediate See also:appeal of his work has diminished. It will always, however, retain its interest, not only for the merits of certain individual novels, but as a See also:mirror of the prevailing intellectual See also:movement of the first See also:half of the 19th See also:century. See T. H. S. Escott, Edward Bulwer, 1st Baron Lytton of Knebworth (1910). (A.

End of Article: LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON, BULWERLYTTON, 1ST BARON (1803-1873)

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