LYTTON, Lord, better known as Sir EDNVARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BIILIVER, Bart., the youngest son of gen. Bulwer of Woodalling and Haydon Hall, Norfolk, was b. in 1805, and received his education at Cambridge, where be graduated B.A. in 1826; and M. A. in 1835. He was distingished as a writer and as a politician, and his achievements in these diverse fields may be noticed separately.
IIis first publication was a poem on Sculpture, which gained the chancellor's prize for English versification at Cambridge in 1825. In 1826 he published a collection of miscellaneous verse, entitled Weeds and Wild Flowers, and in the year following a tale in verse with the title O'Neill, or the 1?ebel. In 1827 his first novel, FalkIttnd, was pub lished anonymously. Next year he published Pelham, which astonished the critics by its cynicism and its icy glitter of epigram. The Disoumed. Devereux, and Paul Clifford followed in rapid succession. In 1831 he broke into more passionate and tragical regions in Eugene Aram, and after that ceased for a period to convulse the libraries. Abottt this time he succeeded Campbell as editor of The Nov Monthly Magazine, and contrib uted to its pages a series of papers which were afterwards collected under the title of The Student. In 1833 he produced his England and the English. In 1834 lie returued to fiction, and published in an illustrated form The Pilgrims qf the Rhine. This was fol lowed by The Last Days of Pompeii, a work of a higher class than any of his former pro ductions. Rienzi followed in the same splendid vein, and received the same admiration. His next work was a play in five acts. The Duchess of La Valliere, which was put ,on the stage in 1836, and failed. Ernest Maltravers came the year after, which, as con taining his views on art and life, has ever been ft favorite with his more thoughtful readers. In the same year he published Athens; its Rise and Fall, full of research and splendid rhetoric. Leila and Calderon appeared in 1838. His next efforts were in the -difficult walk of the drama, in which lie had formerly failed. He produced The Lady -of Lyons and Richelieu, both of which remain among the most popular of modern Eng lish plays.
Lytton's next important work was Zanoni, which was published in 1842,, and in the same year appeared his poem entitled Eva. Other poems were issued—ne New Timor? in is46, and King Arthur in 1848, the former containing couplets turned with the gract, and art of Pope. His next novels were The Last of the Barons, Harold, and Lucretia;
and thereafter he adopted a new walk of fiction, and achieved his greatest triumphs The Caxtons, a domestic novel, gave the world the crowning proof of Lytton's versa tility. This work was followed by ltry Novel, one'of his finest productions. After that he published What will he do with it? and a clever poem entitled St. Stephen's. In 1861 A Strange Story appeared in All the Year Round; and in 1863 lie contributed to Black. mo(s1 a series of essays under the title of Caxtoniun«, which were republished in two vols the same year. The Lost Tale of Mathis was piffilished in 1866; and a translation of Horace's Odes three years later, as alSo tra/pole, a comedy. Inaugural addresses his as lord rector of Edinburgh and Glasgow (lie was elected to this high office twice in Glasgow) universities, respectively, have been published. Lytton contributed, besides, many valuable critical articles to the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and Westminster Reviews. The Reign of Terror, Nvldeli appeared in the Foreign Quarterly Review, is a remarkable treatise. His latest works of artistic fiction were The Coming _Race, pub fished anonymously in 1871; Kenelm Chillingly, 1873; rod Ihe Parisians, which appeared originally in Blackwood's 21fugazine in 1873: These publications show that, to tbe end, the.natural force of his g-enius had not abated. A collection of his Speeches appeared in 1874.
At the age of 26 Lytton entered parliament as member for St. Ives, and attached himself to the refonn party. In 1832 he was returned as member for Lincoln, and held that seat till 1841. In 1835 he received his baronetcy from the Melbourne administra tion ostensibly for brilliant services rendered to his party as a pamphleteer. In 1844 he succeeded, on the death of his mother, to the Knebworth estates, and sought tb return to pruliament; in 1847 he contested Lincoln unsuccessfully; and in 18,52 be was returned as member for the county of Hens, and attached himself to the party headed by lord Derby. During the Derby administration (185/3-59) he was colonial secretary. Ile did not shine as a debater, but several of his parliaznentary speeches were eloquent and telling. He died in 1873.