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Edward Bulwer-Lytton

British statesman and author (1803-1873) · Politicians · Died at 69

Edward Bulwer-Lytton is read about 432 times a day, in 44 languages.

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He wrote "It was a dark and stormy night" - the line so bad it spawned a contest for terrible prose - but also gave English "the pen is mightier than the sword" and half a dozen phrases still in circulation.

PoliticiansWriter / AuthorTheatreLiteraturePoliticsFictionPoetry19th Century

A life in dates

1873Died18 January 18731835“... if the breast be uneducated, the gift may curse the giver; and he who passes at once from the slave to the freeman may pass as rapidly from the freeman to the ruffian.”In their wordsRienzi: The Last of the Tribunes (1835), ch. 1.X

1832“Poverty makes some humble, but more malignant.”In their wordsBook I, Chapter VII

1830“Repent! - that is the idlest word in our language.”In their wordsBook I, Chapter XVIII

1828“There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.”In their wordsChapter III

“The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.”In their wordsChapter XLII

“It is not Wisdom, but Ignorance, which teaches men presumption; Genius may be sometimes arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as Knowledge.”In their wordsChapter LXII

1803Born25 May 1803

Also in Deutsch

Photos 3

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton by Henry William PickersgillEdward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton by Henry William Pickersgill36 Hertford Street, Mayfair, July 202136 Hertford Street, Mayfair, July 2021Lost Plaque LCC Edward Bulwer Lytton 31 Baker Street 1906Lost Plaque LCC Edward Bulwer Lytton 31 Baker Street 1906

In their own words 10

,
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. ... if the breast be uneducated, the gift may curse the giver; and he who passes at once from the slave to the freeman may pass as rapidly from the freeman to the ruffian.

    1835, Rienzi: The Last of the Tribunes (1835), ch. 1.X, Own words

  2. Poverty makes some humble, but more malignant.

    1832, Book I, Chapter VII, Own words

  3. The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells.

    1832, Book I, Chapter VII, Own words

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Awards

Chancellor's Gold Medal

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Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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About this person

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton was born 25 May 1803 and built parallel careers in letters and Parliament. He sat as a Whig MP from 1831 to 1841, then returned as a Conservative from 1851 to 1866, serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies from June 1858 to June 1859 - in which post he selected Richard Clement Moody to found British Columbia. His novels were widely read, and his coinage entered the language: "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the great unwashed", "dweller on the threshold". He was made Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866. He died 18 January 1873, leaving a body of work famous enough that the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest ran from 1982 to 2024 hunting for opening sentences as florid as his most notorious incipit.

Category
Politicians
Type
Politician
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1803 to 1873 · aged 69

Politicians born in the 1800s 6

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