Born May 25, 1803, in London; died Jan. 18, 1873, in Torquay. English writer. Born to an aristocratic family. Prominent member of the Liberal Party and later of the Conservative Party.
In Bulwer-Lytton’s early novels there is a noticeable influence not only of romanticism but also of the enlightenment prose of the 18th century—for example, Pelham (1828; Russian translation, 1859), Paul Clifford (1830), and Eugene Aram (1832; Russian translation, 1860). Romantic tendencies were strong in his cycle of historical novels, which includes The Last Days of Pompeii (1834; Russian translation, 1842), Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes (1835; Russian translation, 1860), The Last of the Barons (1843; Russian translation, 1861), and Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848; Russian translation, 1899). In the novels The Caxtons (1849; Russian translation, 1850) and My Novel (1851-52; Russian translation, 1853) Bulwer-Lytton follows the realistic manner of C. Dickens and W. Thackeray. Romantic and realistic characteristics are intermingled in Bulwer-Lytton’s best novel, Kenelm Chillingly (1873; Russian translation, 1873), the hero of which is in sharp conflict with the bourgeois world. Bulwer-Lytton is the author of the novel The Parisians (1873; Russian translation, 1874) and the science-fiction novel The Coming Race (1871; Russian translation, 1873). Among his plays the best known are the historical dramas The Duchess de la V allié re (1836) and Richelieu (1839), as well as the melodramas The Lady of Lyons (1838; Russian translation, 1888) and Money (1840).