Pelham.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“PELHAM” is at once the most finished as a narrative, the most vigorous
in execution, and taking its exuberant wit and daring originality into
account, it must be considered as the most decided indication of what
is rather felt than defined by the word _genius_.
Paul Clifford.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“PAUL CLIFFORD” is a work _sui generis_. It is a political and
social satire worked out through the gravest agencies;--in form, a
burlesque--in essentials, a tragedy.
Eugene Aram.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“EUGENE ARAM” attests an immense progress in the resources of art in
fiction; it grasps the materials of terror and pity with a master’s
hand, and connects them with all the gradual progress of the drama,
into tragic completeness.
The Last Days of Pompeii.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
The plot commencing lightly with the gay descriptions of idle life,
its baths and its banquets, deepens gradually towards the awful
magnificence of the catastrophe. All our passions are alternately
“rocked as on a music scale” by the scene in the gladiatorial
arena,--the inhuman delight of the spectators,--the first outburst of
the irruption from the Mount of Fire,--the phenomena of the general
destruction,--to the still unnoticed disappearance of Nydia, under the
smile of awaking Dawn.
Ernest Maltravers.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
Rienzi.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
The early middle age of Italy rises before us; rude, yet struggling
into light, and seeking escape into civilization by return to the
classic past; the grand soul of the “Last Tribune” comes to recall
again, for a momentary interval, the majesty of antique Rome,
startling, as with the ghost of the classic giantess, the barbarian
courts of the victor North. Rienzi himself is the master-spirit of the
whole.
Alice; or, the Mysteries.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
The typical intentions are with admirable art kept so far subordinate
to the story, that we always feel ourselves in the company of living
agents; and it is only when our interest in the events of the tale
and the destinies of its leading characters is fully satisfied, that
we pause to look back at the secret philosophy that pervades the
narrative, and become sensible of the wisdom we have acquired in the
pleasure we have received.
Night and Morning.
1s. 6d. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 4s.
“NIGHT AND MORNING” is the most generally popular of the author’s
works; its materials are of a homelier and coarser kind than many of
them; but their texture is strong and their hues brilliant. And in
proportion as the work dispenses with the more reflective beauties that
distinguish “MALTRAVERS,” it gains as an animated and powerful story of
human life.
The Pilgrims of the Rhine.
1s. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 2s. 6d.
The loveliest and most fanciful of this varied catalogue of fiction.
It gathers together, as into a garland of flowers, the associations,
the history, the legends, the romance of the Rhine. Nothing like it,
for the comprehension of the poetical aspects of places hallowed by
tradition, exists in our language; and its originality is so toned down
into familiar sweetness, that it is scarcely detected till we search
for some work with which to compare it, and--find none.
Last of the Barons.
2s. Railway Library. Large Edition, cloth gilt, 5s.
The chief attraction of the book is in the brilliant gallery of
contemporary portraits--Edward IV.; Henry VI.; the grand, affectionate,
wayward, fiery King Maker, the accomplished, able, inconstant Hastings;
the portentous youth of Richard of Gloucester, learned and witty,
dauntless and aspiring.
Godolphin.
1s. 6d. (December 1st.) Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“GODOLPHIN” has less vigour and less profundity than the best of the
writer’s fictions, but it has an exquisite grace of sentiment and a
singular fascination of style. It contains, perhaps, too, on the whole,
the most accurate of all Bulwer’s representations of that cold and
glittering surface of society which the French entitle the _beau monde_.
Disowned.
1s. 6d. (1855). Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
The “DISOWNED,” with a more defective narrative and less sparkling
diction, gives glimpses of a much loftier tone of mind, of greater
capacities for pathos, of grander ideals of human character and the
nobler aims of human life. Perhaps a finer picture of the Christian
Stoic than is given to us in the effigies of the principal hero in the
“DISOWNED,” Algernon Mordaunt, is not to be found in prose fiction.
Devereux.
1s. 6d. (1855). Large Edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
The mystery that pervades the plot is admirably sustained, and is
derived, not from the inferior sources of external incident, but the
complicated secrets of the human heart.
Zanoni.
1s. 6d. (1855). Large edition, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
“ZANONI” is perhaps less liked by the many than the generality of its
companions, but it has especial admirers, who rank it above them all.
Independently of the depth and richness of its less visible poetry and
wisdom, it contains passages of tenderness and power, of wild fancy and
sombre grandeur, that irresistibly chain the more imaginative class of
readers.
Leila; or, the Siege of Granada.
Calderon; or, the Courtier.
1s. (1855). Large edition, cloth gilt, 2s.
Both these must be regarded as bold and rapid sketches, by a
master-hand, rather than elaborate and finished performances of careful
art.
Harold.
1s. 6d. (1855). Large edition, cloth gilt, 4s.
So truly national is this work in its spirit, and so replete with
interest and value is the information it contains, whether of manners,
customs, the origin of various races that people our island, the causes
of political events that, however remote, have bequeathed influences
which rule us at this day, that the careful perusal of “HAROLD” becomes
almost the duty of every well-instructed Englishman.
Lucretia.
1s. 6d. (1855). Large edition, cloth gilt, 4s.
“LUCRETIA; or, THE CHILDREN OF NIGHT,” rather errs from the
over-exertion of strength. The vigour of its descriptions is not
sufficiently restrained by art, and carries terror too far into the
regions of pain.
The Caxtons.
(1855). Large edition, cloth gilt, 4s.
The moral bequeathed by the Caxton Family has received universal
approbation. It runs broadly and healthfully along the whole
composition, sporting with us by the way, and leaving us happier and
better at the close.
My Novel.
(1855). 2 vols, large edition, cloth gilt, 8s.
It is from its immense breadth of comprehension, its mature repose of
thought, its felicitous selection of the results of a most diversified
experience, that “MY NOVEL” is indeed _par emphasis_ entitled to the
name it assumes; and if not the loftiest of Bulwer’s works is certainly
his completest novel.