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Edward Bulwer-Lytton

British melodramatic novelist (1803-1873)

About Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Now best known for the first sentence of his novel Paul Clifford:

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.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, while admittedly florid, was one of his generation's most popular novelists for a reason. His novels are wide-ranging, from historical epic to drawing-room social commentary, and while you'd never mistake his prose for Hemingway's, his writing is much better than his reputation would seem to indicate. Bulwer-Lytton gave the language the popular expressions "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "The almighty dollar".

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Novels Available at Mousehold Words

What Will He Do With It? (1857-59)
20 parts of 15,000-20,000 words each.

Organized around the question in the title, What Will He Do With It tells a complex story, part family drama, part mystery, part sensation, and part meditation on the nature of eloquence, pride, and duty.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Links