Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, (1803-73) was a English aristocrat, 1st Baron Lytton and Earl of Knebsworth. He was an enormously popular novelist, and a member of the English Rosicrucian Society, founded in 1867 by Robert Wenworth Little.

Novels

• Paul Clifford, published in three volumes on April 30, 1830 by Colburn and Bentley, is a story of a man who leads a dual life as both a gentleman and a criminal. The first edition was the largest printing of any modern novel up to that time, and it sold out on the first day. It was Bulwer-Lytton's fifth novel, written when he was twenty-eight, and was the first of four crime novels. The text is available at Project Gutenberg.[6]
• The Last Days of Pompeii, published in 1934, was a very popular work that inspired at least 10 films, plays, and operas. The text is available at Project Gutenberg [7] and at the Internet Archive.[8]
• Zanoni was published in 1842 in London by Saunders and Otley. Among its themes are Rosicrucianism, divine madness, love, the elixir of life, and immortality. The Dweller on the Threshold figures prominently. For a plot synopsis, see Ancient Wisdom Publications.[9] The text is available at Project Gutenberg.[10]
• The Coming Race, published in 1871, was a work of science fiction later republished as Vril, the Power of the Coming Race. The text is available at Project Gutenberg[11] and also at Sacred Text.com. [12]

Impact

Several of Bulwer-Lytton's phrases have become common usage, such as "the great unwashed" from the novel Paul Clifford, "pursuit of the almighty dollar" from his novel The Coming Race, and "the pen is mightier than the sword" from the play 'Richelieu.

In the 21st century, Bulwer-Lytton is mostly remembered for his florid writing style. San Diego State university annually conducts the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which participants are invited to compose a deliberately bad opening sentence to a novel. The opening to Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford served as the inspiration for this tongue-in-cheek contest:

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.

The phrase "It was a dark and stormy night" has appeared frequently in American popular culture, including the comic strip Peanuts, the television series Star Trek, and the novel A Wrinkle in Time.