Books with author Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton

New Complete Edition - The Last Days of Pompeii - By Edward George Bulwer-Lytton - The Cataclysmic Destruction of the City of Pompeii. The Last Days of Pompeii is a novel written by the baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting The Last Day of Pompeii by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan. Once a very widely read book and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The novel uses its characters to contrast the decadent culture of 1st-century Rome with both older cultures and coming trends. The protagonist, Glaucus, represents the Greeks who have been subordinated by Rome, and his nemesis Arbaces the still older culture of Egypt. Olinthus is the chief representative of the nascent Christian religion, which is presented favourably but not uncritically. The Witch of Vesuvius, though she has no supernatural powers, shows Bulwer-Lytton's interest in the occult – a theme which would emerge in his later writing, particularly The Coming Race. A popular sculpture by American sculptor Randolph Rogers, Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii (1856) was based on a character from the book. Pompeii, A.D. 79. Athenian nobleman Glaucus arrives in the bustling and gaudy Roman town and quickly falls in love with the beautiful Greek Ione. Ione's former guardian, the malevolent Egyptian sorcerer Arbaces, has designs on Ione and sets out to destroy their budding happiness. Arbaces has already ruined Ione's sensitive brother Apaecides by luring him to join the vice-ridden priesthood of Isis. The blind slave Nydia is rescued from her abusive owners by Glaucus, for whom she secretly pines. Arbaces horrifies Ione by declaring his love for her, and flying into a rage when she refuses him. Glaucus and Apaecides rescue her from his grip, but Arbaces is struck down by an earthquake, a sign of Vesuvius's coming eruption. Glaucus and Ione exult in their love, much to Nydia's torment, while Apaecides finds a new religion in Christianity. Nydia unwittingly helps Julia, a rich young woman who has eyes for Glaucus, obtain a love potion from Arbaces to win Glaucus's love. But the love potion is really a poison that will turn Glaucus mad. Nydia steals the potion and administers it; Glaucus drinks only a small amount and begins raving wildly. Apaecides and Olinthus, an early Christian, determine to publicly reveal the deception of the cult of Isis. Arbaces, recovered from his wounds, overhears and stabs Apaecides to death; he then pins the crime on Glaucus, who has stumbled onto the scene.

Excerpt from Paul Clifford, Vol. 1 of 3Nor is this, as at the first glance it may appear, owing to the fault or the unimportance of the writings themselves. 'vhile The Sketch Book is found in every young lady's dressing-room; and Bracebridge Hall is still in high request, in every country book-club The Life of Columbus, invalua ble, if only from the subject so felicitously chosen; The Wars of Grenada, scarcely less valuable from the' subject so consum mately adorned, and so stirringly painted; are, the one slowly passing into forgetfulness, and the other slumbering, with uncut leaves, upon the shelf. Compare the momentary sensation produced by the first appearance of Lord King's Life of Locke, with the sensation, durable and intense, which, replete' as it is with the treasure of Locke's familiar thoughts, it would have produced twenty years ago! Godwin's History of the Commonwealth, one of the most manly and impartial records ever written, lives less upon the memory than Almack's and Cyril Thornton, produced some four years since, is in more immediate vogue than the admirable history by the same Author but the other day. True, that among a succeeding generation, there may possibly be a re-action_lethargic octaves be awakened from their untimely trance, and enlivened quartos take up their~ beds and walk But now when people tie/ink as well as feel, and the present is to them that matter of refer ence and consideration which the future was with their more dreaming forefathers - the fame that is only posthumous, has become to all, but to poets, a very frigid and impotent induce ment.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Last Days Of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The story is set in Pompeii, A.D. 79. Athenian nobleman Glaucus arrives in the busy Roman town and quickly falls in love with the beautiful Greek Ione. Ione's former guardian, the Egyptian sorcerer Arbaces, has designs on Ione and sets out to destroy their growing happiness. Arbaces has already ruined Ione's sensitive brother Apaecides by luring him to join the vice-ridden corrupt priesthood of Isis. Any profits made from the sale of this book will go towards supporting the Freeriver Community project, a project that aims to support community and encourage well-being. To learn more about the Freeriver Community project please visit the website- www.freerivercommunity.com

From PELHAM to the PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE, from RIENZI to the LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, -- PAUL CLIFFORD is the only one in which a robber has been made the hero, or the peculiar phases of life which he illustrates have been brought into any prominent description. Without pausing to inquire what realm of manners or what order of crime and sorrow is open to art, and capable of administering to the proper ends of fiction, I may be permitted to observe that the present subject was selected, and the Novel written, with a twofold object: First, to draw attention to two errors in our penal institutions; namely, a vicious prison-discipline, and a sanguinary criminal code, -- the habit of corrupting the boy by the very punishment that ought to redeem him, and then hanging the man at the first occasion, as the easiest way of getting rid of our own blunders. Between the example of crime which the tyro learns from the felons in the prison-yard, and the horrible levity with which the mob gather round the drop at Newgate, there is a connection which a writer may be pardoned for quitting loftier regions of imagination to trace and to detect. So far this book is less a picture of the king's highway than the law's royal road to the gallows, -- a satire on the short cut established between the House of Correction and the Condemned Cell. A second and a lighter object in the novel of PAUL CLIFFORD (and hence the introduction of a semi-burlesque or travesty in the earlier chapters) was to show that there is nothing essentially different between vulgar vice and fashionable vice, and that the slang of the one circle is but an easy paraphrase of the cant of the other.