Other editions of book RIENZI, The Last of the Roman Tribunes

"Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes" by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Rienzi, The Last of the Roman Tribunes is a historical novel that was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The action is set in Rome during the Italian Renaissance. Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a prominent English writer and politician in the 19th century. Bulwer-Lytton is notable for being one of the first authors to earn a considerable fortune from just his books. Bulwer-Lytton also was responsible for famous sayings such as "pursuit of the almighty dollar" and "the pen is mightier than the sword". Some of his most famous works include The Last Days of Pompeii, The Coming Race, and Zanoni.

Classic historical fiction by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who interrupted completion of this book to write Last Days of Pompeii. The tribune Rienzi is pitted against the autocratic monarchy, contrasting republicanism with autocratic monarchy. Based on the historical figure Nicholas Gabrini de Rienzi, who, from a low and despicable situation, raised himself to sovereign authority in Rome, in the fourteenth century; assuming the title of Tribune, and proposing to restore the ancient free republic. This edition retains the original 1835 Prefatory article, adding also the 1848 Prefatory article, and two historical appendices. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) is the author of The Last Days of Pompeii; Harold the Last of the Saxon Kings; and The Last of the Barons. He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866. His varied and highly derivative novels won wide popularity, although he is best remembered for his extremely well-researched historical novels, particularly The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) and Rienzi (1835). A member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841, Bulwer-Lytton was a reformer, but in 1852 he returned to Parliament as a Conservative. In 1858 he was appointed colonial secretary. He was also a successful dramatist. His plays include The Lady of Lyons (1838), Richelieu (1839), and Money (1840).

Rome. On removing to Naples, I threw it aside for The Last Days of Pompeii, which required more than Rienzi the advantage of residence within reach of the scenes described. The fate of the Roman Tribune continued, however, to haunt and impress me, and, some time after Pompeii was published, I renewed my earlier undertaking. I regarded the completion of these volumes, indeed, as a kind of duty ;for having had occasion to read the original authorities from which modern historians have drawn their accounts of the life of Rienzi, I was led to believe that a very remarkable man had been superficially judged, and a very important period crudely examined. And this belief was sufficiently strong to induce me at first to meditate a more serious work upon the life and times of Rienzi. f Various reasons concurred against this project and I renounced the biography to commence the fiction. I have still, however, adhered, with a greater fidelity than is customary in Romance, to all the leading events of the public life of the Roman Tribune ;and the reader will peihaps find in these pages a more full and detailed account of the rise and fall of Rienzi, than in any English work of which I am aware. I have, it is true, taken a view of his character different in some respects from that of Gibbon or Sismondi. But it is a view, in all its main features, which I believe (and think I could prove) myself to be warranted in taking, not less by the facts of history than the laws of fiction. In the mean while, as I have given the facts from which I have drawn my interpretation of the principal agent, the reader has sufficient data for his own judgment. In the picture of the Roman populace, as in that of the Roman nobles of the fourteenth century, I follow literally the descriptions left to us ;they are not flattering, but they are faithful, likenesses. Preserving generally the real c(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)