The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-11 00:00:00

Novels of Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart.
Library Edition. Wm. Blackwood and Sons.
Another volume will have completed the issue
(month by mouth) of the first of the Four Series
into which this Library Edition of Sir Bulwer

Lytton's Novels has been subdivided. That priority
should have been given to " The Caxton Novels"
caa scarcely be matter of surprise, remembering who
are the publishers. But apart from their having
thus very naturally accorded by this selection, a
most graceful tribute to the three remarkable fictions
which have assumed a conspicuous, or rather pre-
eminent place among the later glories of Maga, we
cannot but think that the Messrs. Blackwood have

acted most judiciously in giving precedence to them
as the latest and, in many respects, the greatest
among Sir Edward Lytton's twenty noble contri-
butions to our imaginative literature. Immediately
this initial " set" shall have been completed by the
appearance of the tenth volume of the " Caxton
Novels" in August, the periodical issue of the
Library Edition of Bulwer Lytton will be continued
by the issue in due sequence of the " Historical
Romances," of the "Romances," per et simple, and
finally, of the miscellaneous series, entitled in the
prospectus, "Novels of Life and Manners." It is
curious to note that thZi'',Romances" of Sir E. B.
Lytton number altogether no more than three—
several of the works popularly regarded as

in
penned by our great novelist his character as a
romancist taking their place more accurately under
the title of "Novels of Life and Manners" or of
Romances of a strictly Historical character. And
it is thus not more obvious upon reflection than that
the " Caxton Novels" number three altogether, that
three should constitute the precise number, or full
complement, to which Bulwer's Romances have in
this deliberate redistribution of his works been
restricted. These three unmistakable Romances
being—first, " The Pilgrims of the Rhine" with all
its legendary tales from Elfiand, strung like so
many pearls upon that gossamer line of exquisite
tenuity, the delicate and perishable thread of the
life of Gertrude, the Victim of Consumption—
secondly, "Eugene Aram," the:Lynn schoolmaster—
an d 3dly, " Zanoni," the Rosicrucian.As to the "His-
torical Romances" they are half of them of foreign,
half of English growth—" Devereux," relating to the
period of the Commonwealth—" The Last of the
Barons," as its title indicates, to the epoch of War-
wick the King-maker—and " Harold," to what
must be regarded as the true starting point of our
national annals, the advent of the Norman Conque-
ror. Contrasting vividly with these three home-
drawn historical romances are three historical
romances, the scenes of which lie wholly abroad—
" The Siege of Grenada," recounting the love story
of Leila in the midst of the heroic downfall of the
Abencerrages ; " Rienzi," revealing to us the life
and manners of the midieeval era, through the
moving narrative of the rise to power, and the ulti-
mate and most tragic destruction of the last of the
Roman Tribunes •, while " The Last Days of Pom-
peii" recalls to ideal life the classic age, dead and
buried, during so many centuries, under the calcined
dust, vomitted with flames and thunder from Vesu-
vius over the sister cities of Pompeii and Hercula-
neum. Analysing this redistribution of the Works
of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, therefore, it appears al-
ready, so far, that the twelve separate works but
just now enumerated, the twelve works leading off
the reissue of the entire " score" of Novels now in
course of collective republication in the form of this
elegant Library Edition may be numbered, throe
by three, down to the last of the series specified
in the prospectus as the " Novels of Life and
Manners." Namely, the three " Caxton" novels,
the three " Romances," strictly so called, together
with the six " Historical Romances," three Foreign
and three English. Even the remaining eight
works, here catalogued together roughly as Novels
of Life and Manners, might very readily have been
harmonised with this more exact distribution (by
threes) of the other fictions already particularised.
Premising only that " Ernest Maltravers," and its
sequel " Alice, or the Mysteries," were blent
several years since as the first and second parts of
the Eleusinia ; and remembering always, at the
same time, that the ghastly, ghostly, grimly,
grizzly tale of " Lucretia," the Poisoner, stands
altogether apart from the rest of Sir Edward's varied
and voluminous contributions to our literature. Bear-
ing which two last-mentioned particulars in mind,
the Novels of Life and Manners ,no less naturally than
the Historical Romances themselves separate again
into threes—here three of a purely satiric and
humorous, there three of a more purely imagi-
native and romantic character. Under the former
category, of course, being—" Pelham" leading us
for the most part into the fashionable world—" The
Disowned" bringing us more directly and con-
tinuously into contact with the middle classes—and
" Paul Clifford" laying barn before us the yet more
" strange, eventful history" of the criminal popu-
lation. Under the second category above specified.
falling the records of " Godolphin," of " Night
and Morning," and of "Ernest Maltravers." The
absorption of " Alice, or the Mysteries" into "Mal-
travers, or the Elusinia," as Parts First and
Second, we have ourselves, all along regretted as
unnecessary and confusing. It is an amalgamation,
however, long since determined upon, and by this
time effectually accomplished. -Whether, to our
liking or not, therefore we must needs accept it—
just as we must accept also, by this time perforce,
each as un fait aecompli, and that, moreover, irre-
vocably, the selection of the titles affixed by Sir
Edward Lytton respectively to the two last and
most exquisitely elaborated among his prose works of
imagination. Both of these noble effusions being,
distinguished by titles which are still, to our think-
ing, quite as much misnomers in their way as the
Christian or rather heathen name awarded to their
putative father—Pisistratus ! "My Novel," how-
ever self-depreciatingly embarrassing to the non-
novel-writing reader, is yet inexorably "My Novel."
down to the end of the chapter, down to the end
of all its chapters. " What will he do with it ? "
is such permanently, and with an unsatisfied air of
perpetual inquisitiveness, no matter how suggestive,
to us, in spite of ourselves, of replies at once trivial
and ridiculous. One can only yield at last a re-
luctant recognition to designations thus
strangely affixed to a great author's title-pages,
bearing in recollection for the nonce the applicabi-
lity here, at least, of that oraculur dictum once syl-
labled from the Delphos of Clumber—to the effect
that Anyone may do what he likes with his own.
Born of this one wonderful imagination, therefore,
creations of his abounding fancy, life of his life, the
Novels of Bulwer Lytton (each of them a very micro-
cosm) may surely ba called to hi own liking. " A
rose by any other name," et ea. Still, it does
harmonise more completely with oue's notion of the
fitness of things when the rose is "not" called the
squirting cucumber ! Pisistratus Caxton, however,
whose name alone appears upon the title-pages of
all these nine recently issued volumes of the Library
Edition of the Bulwer Novels and Romances—Pisis-
tratus Caxton seems thereby in a manner to claim,
even ostentatiously, the fictitious responsibility of
the mere nomenclature. And certainly in regard
to " My Novel," at least, the mere name of the sup.
posititious novelist is a very vivid and pleasant re-
minder of one of those delightful Initial Chapters
sprinkled through the enthralling narrative of the
fiction itself—pictures within pictures, dreams
within dreams—a chapter so witty withal, so
humorous, so absolutely delightful throughout, as
an apology for the title of the work as" My Novel"
that, if anything could reconcile us to it, it would
certainly be those lambent corruscations to and fro
among the dear home group of the Caxton Family
of so much badinage and espieglerie, of so many inno-
cent whims and harmless pleasantries. Remember•
ing all which, are we not still nevertheless to the last
incorrigibly unconverted—are we not yet to the end
inexorable, implacable, inexpugnable in our most
stubborn nonconformity ? Regarding "My Novel"
and " What will he do with it ?" as ranking
high amongst the greatest masterpieces of pro..e
fiiction in the language, and yet deeming them as
whimsically named as the Labia Dormientiuni, or
even as, let us add, Says she to my _Neighbour,
What ? 'Who, however, will not gladly turn from
had previously
such churlish objections to the mere titles, to recall
to mind ever only with increasing admiration the
maze of incidents and the world of life-like charac-
ters introduced in these three superb fictions now
familiar to and loved by the throng of English
novel-readers as the CAXTON NOVELS of Sir Bulwer
Lytton ? The Caxtons themselves—that exquid-
site " Family Picture"—we areacsintliilrlaafrotacio_
,da.aerivntotedriorfitoyb::
that
1 ensogaaatttu
it
originally
among all Sir Edward's prose writings
doubted masterpiece. Our
really noble and beautiful work is i
date indeed—is of the very earliepaspztine,
forgotten that "The Caxtonosf"aa
piecemeal in Blackwood' s
to
month° quite anon
appeared there from month
seeing that the work wesafs,s7;-,
mously. A COTI siderablActicuiireocerullestneadniene ttrhnet hl befZe-
there was any whisper at all, suspicion, afloat
as to its authorship.
Yikerent i nm anything that Sir
truth altogether geeetrreirnld
Edwardn to " Harold. "
appearance, __---. so rn
It • '
" Falkland" do
was in this
therefore, that the first Six chapters of " The
way, Lytton
w
PP ce, as we have said,
quiteauthorship wholly
unsuspected, in the spring of 1848, towards
Cantons"
anonymously, il ade their
anda w
ci, the
close of the April number of Blackwo
zinc. And upon the 3rd of April, 184° our-
selves,llk"-
in directing attention to that 8, we
number of Maga, wrote in these fl (cut rent)
Sun in reference to those first sixchapterse)limns ofThe
of "The
Caxtens," that it appeared t
to us (even then
from that fragmentary glimpse of it) to be one of
the most beautiful tales ghat had been for a con-

siderable time published. Alluding to Mr. Cax-
ton himself, we then wrote in The bun of the 3rd
of April, 1848—" Augustine Caxton is a fine,
manly, original, and right natural creation ;"
adding—" he might have been fathered upon Lau-
rence Sterne, for the character is conceived in that
spirit of racy and spontaneous wit, which is the
charm of ' Tristram bhandy.'" Observing yet
further—" The little episode about a flower-pot
in the fourth chapter is exquisitely told." Month
by month as " The Caxtons ' appeared in successive
nmnbers of Magaby instalments—month by month
we wrote of it in this journal in terms of grow-
ing and strengthening admiration. But from the
appearance of the very first instalment as the
above words of ours clearly enough indicate, we
recognised upon the instant that we were in
the presence of a writer of genius : and we
waited not for the issue of the second instalment
—much less for the indication of the author's

personal identity—to pronounce at once our cor-
dial admiration. Month by month alsO it is cer-
tainly true, we duly noted in subsequent years
through these columns the development of the
two later and more highly elaborated fictions
also published in Blackwood's Magazine both of
them assuming to be from the pen of Pisistratus.
But neither of those works any longer could be
said to appear for that reason—cis the supposed.
writings of Pisistratus Caxton—anonymously.
" The Caxton Family" had been long before then
formally acknowledged by Sir Bulwer Lytton.
Prior to which formal acknowledgment, however,

by a very considerable interval as will have been
seen, we could claim the privilege of having heartily
eulogised it before we had the slightest suspicion as to
its authorship, speaking of it thus in terms of per-
fectly dispassionate appreciation. Our opinions now
of more than twelve years back are only confirmed.
and intensified. But while this is so indisputably
—how much more reason have we not for their being
thus confirmed and intensified ! How many more
incidents for example have there not been added by
The Caxton Novels" to that charming one about
the flower-pot and the box of dominoes ! How
many more characters have there not been brought
within the hallowed circle of our intimacy by the
expansion of that home-circle of the Caxton Family
—from the first dropping in April, 1848, of that little
pebble of a first instalment in the current of our
anonymous periodical literature ! Besides Austin
Caxton and his wife Kitty, besides Mrs. Primmins,
and Mr. Squills, and the boy Pisistratus (the
only characters introduced to the reader in
those first six chapters makiLg up the
First Part or instalment)—Uncle Roland,
and Uncle Jack, Mr. Trevanion, Fanny, Lady Elli-
nor, Francis Vivian, Sir Sedley Beaudesart, Mr.
Peacock, Blanche, and all those other living and
breathing entities from that first glimpse of " The
Fair Shadowland !" Through .111 y Novel again—
how many new creations are not crowding back upon
the recognition of our remembrance !—Squire
Haseldean, Parson Dale, Leonard Fairfield, And-
ley Egerton, Dr. Riccabocca, the faithful Jackeymo,
Sprott the Tinker, Frank, Jemima, Mr. Stirn, Ran-
dal Leslie, Richard Avenel, Harley Lord l'Estrange,
John Burley, Helen, Dr. Morgan, Violante, Baron
Levy, Colonel Plompley, and a crowd of other old
friends and acquaintances, as real each and all in
their way as any of our own substantial friends
and acquaintances. Lastly, through the medium of
the closing fiction of the series, What will he do with
it ?—Guy Darrell (after whom we should like to
have had the story named), Lionel Hatghton, poor
Waife the actor, otherwise " Willy," his semi-dia-
bolical son Jasper Losely, Rugge the Manager,
Vance the artist, Merle the cobbler, Sophy, Fair-
thorn with his flute, Colonel Morley, Arabella
Crane, Sir Isaac the French poodle, Mr. Hartopp the
mayor, and his managing man Mr. Williams,
Lady Montfort, Dolly Poole, George Morley the
preacher, Carr Vipont the (all but) heaven born.
minister (in his own estimation), Lady Selina and
• the rest of that vgorld-in-little giving to us hero
again our English life in all its marvellous Varie-
ties. Enough however—for in this mere careless
enumeration of the more conspicuous names of the
imaginary creatures jostling each other in the
thronged and tortuously-interwoven maze of The
Caxton Novels, we have sufficiently suggested to
the remembrance of those already familiar with
its pa ges, the scope and diversity of this now
nearly completed series ushering in the periodical
issue of the Library Edition of the prose fictions of
our English Boccaccio.