Throughout his career, Bulwer never ceased to cultivate his muse. From the Byronic influ ence that marked his poems down to 1830, he worked into satire, addressing himself ((to the humors rather than to the passions of men." The 'Siamese Twins' (1831), a poem of four books in the metre of appeared in a volume of miscellaneous poems, of which the longest is one on Milton. 'The New Timon; A Poetical Romance of London' • (1846), a satire on men then prominent in politics and literature, is memorable for the reference to Tennyson as “Schoolmiss Alfred? and for Tennyson's caustic stanzas in a reply contrib uted to Punch, 28 Feb. 1846. Among Bulwer's other collections of verse as 'Poems and Bal lads,' translated from Schiller (1844); an epic in two volumes on 'King Arthur' (1848-49) ; 'The Lost Tales of Miletus' (1866) • and a translation of the 'Odes and Epodes of Horace' (1869). If Bulwer did not gain much fame as a poet, he exactly hit popular taste in three plays— 'The Lady of Lyons) (1838), 'Riche lieu' (1838) and (Money) (1840)— which still keep the stage.
Bulwer's role in letters has obscured for later times the part he played in politics. From 1831 to 1841 he sat in Parliament as a Liberal member of Saint Ives, Huntingdonshire and then for Lincoln. After making his maiden speech in support of the Reform Bill, he de voted his energies largely in favor of copyright on original works, cheap postage on newspa pers and the laws affecting dramatic literature and the stage. His early speeches on these sub jects are still worth reading. In 1834, he issued a spirited pamphlet on the 'Present Crisis,' which went through 20 editions and influenced greatly the election that brought Lord Melbourne back to power. The new Premier offered him a lordship in the Admiralty but the post was declined. In 1841, Bulwer lost his seat owing to his willingness to accept a slight tax on corn. Ten years later he ad vocated protection to this extent in (Letters to John Bull, Esq.) • and in 1852 he returned to Parliament as a Conservative member for Hert fordshire. His numerous speeches of this period relate to the excise duties, the Crimean War, China and the East India Company. On the formation of the Derby Ministry in 1848, he became. Secretary to the Colonies. While hold ing this office he organized the new colony of British Columbia. He spoke in support of Disraeli's reform bill of 1859, but against the measures introduced by Lord Russell and Glad stone in 1860 and 1866. As a reward for his services, he was elevated to the peerage in 1866, as Baron Lytton of Knebworth. Before this
he received the degree LL.D. from both of the great English universities. In 1854 he was in stalled honorary president of the Associated Societies of Edinburgh University, and he was twice elected lord rector of the University of Glasgow. To the last he kept up his literary work. 'The Parisians' was running in Block wood's Magazine when the end came at Tor quay on 18 Jan. 1873. He was buried in West minster Abbey.
As a novelist Bulwer was subject to fierce assaults from the critics throughout his career. Thackeray, for example, in a review of 'Ernest Maltravers' ridiculed and scorned his bad art, affected style, 'his eternal whine . . . about the good and the beautiful') and 'the dulness of his moral sense? Still there is the other side. In various prefaces to his novels and especially in two papers contributed to the Monthly Chronicle for 1838, Bulwer carefully elaborated his views on the art of fiction, draw ing clear distinctions between the novel and the drama as he understood and practised them. He never aimed at the dramatic novel wherein each incident and conversation must contribute to the working out of a logical plot. "It is often desirable? he said with reference to the novel, ((to go back instead of forward,— to wind, to vary, to shift the interest from person to person)) that the reader may not become fatigued. In that aim he succeeded. However much his novels may fail in technical details, they have never failed to find an audience.
Bibliography.— Unfortunately there is no adequate life of Bulwer or critical edition of his novels, indicating the many important changes he made in the text from time to time. Uncrit ical editions of the novels are numerous. To his 'Speech& (2 vols., Edinburgh 1874), his son, the Earl of Lytton, prefixed a memoir dealing with his political career. The period of his life from 1803 to 1832 is covered by a most interesting autobiography, half fact and half fiction, and several supplementary chapters by his son, published together under the title Letters and Literary Remains' (2 vols., London 1883). After the death of Lady Lyt ton, her executrix, Louisa Devey, published in vindication of her memory 'Letters of the Late Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton to his Wife' (New York 1889). Consult also of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton' (London 1873) ; Escott, 'Edward Lytton' (London 1910); Ten Brink, 'Edward Lytton' (Leyden 1882); and Second Earl of Lytton, 'Life of Edward Bulwer, First Lord Lytton' (2 vols., New York and London 1913).