Editing Edward Bulwer-Lytton (section)

==Life==
Bulwer was born on 25 May 1803 to General William Earle Bulwer of [[Heydon Hall]] and [[Wood Dalling]], Norfolk, and [[Elizabeth Barbara Lytton]], daughter of [[Richard Warburton Lytton]] of [[Knebworth House]], Hertfordshire. He had two older brothers, William Earle Lytton Bulwer (1799–1877) and [[Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer|Henry]] (1801–1872; later Baron Dalling and Bulwer).{{sfn|Waugh|1911|p=185}}

His father died and his mother moved to London when he was four years old. When he was 15, a tutor named Wallington, who tutored him at [[Great Ealing School|Ealing]], encouraged him to publish an immature work: ''Ishmael and Other Poems''. Around this time, Bulwer fell in love, but the woman's father induced her to marry another man. She died about the time that Bulwer went to Cambridge and he stated that her loss affected all his subsequent life.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=185}}

In 1822 Bulwer-Lytton entered [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he met [[John Auldjo]], but soon moved to [[Trinity Hall, Cambridge|Trinity Hall]]. In 1825 he won the [[Chancellor's Gold Medal]] for English verse.<ref>{{acad |id=BLWR821EG |name=<nowiki>Bulwer [post Bulwer-Lytton], Edward George [Earle] Lytton</nowiki>}}</ref> In the following year he took his [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] degree and printed for private circulation a small volume of poems, ''Weeds and Wild Flowers''.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=185}} He purchased an army commission in 1826, but sold it in 1829 without serving.<ref>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/bulwer-edward-1803-1873] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930175431/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/bulwer-edward-1803-1873|date=30 September 2017}} History of Parliament Online article.</ref>

[[File:Edward Bulmer-Lytton-source for Aroldo by Verdi.jpg|thumb|upright|Edward Bulwer-Lytton. His ''Harold, the Last of the Saxons'' (1848) was the source for Verdi's opera ''[[Aroldo]]''.]]
In August 1827, he married [[Rosina Bulwer Lytton|Rosina Doyle Wheeler]] (1802–1882), a noted Irish beauty, but against the wishes of his mother, who withdrew his allowance, forcing him to work for a living.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=185}} They had two children, Emily Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton (1828–1848), and [[Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton|(Edward) Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton]] (1831–1891) who became [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General and Viceroy of British India]] (1876–1880). His writing and political work strained their marriage and his infidelity embittered Rosina.<ref name="Drabble2000pp147">{{Cite book |last=Drabble |first=Margaret |year=2000 |title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00drab_958 |url-access=limited |edition=sixth|page= [https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00drab_958/page/n162 147] |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford; New York |isbn=0198662440 }}</ref>

In 1833, they separated acrimoniously and in 1836 the separation became legal.<ref name="Drabble2000pp147"/> Three years later, Rosina published ''Cheveley, or the Man of Honour'' (1839), satirising her husband's hypocrisy.<ref name="Drabble2000pp147"/>

In June 1858, when her husband was standing as parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire, she denounced him at the [[hustings]]. He retaliated by threatening her publishers, withholding her allowance and denying her access to their children. Finally he had her committed to a mental asylum, but she was released a few weeks later after a public outcry.<ref name="Drabble2000pp147"/> This she chronicled in a memoir, ''[[A Blighted Life]]'' (1880).<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Blighted Life |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Blighted_Life |author=Lady Lytton |year=1880 |publisher=The London Publishing Office |location=London |access-date=28 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100226020123/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Blighted_Life |archive-date=26 February 2010 |url-status=live |author-link=Rosina Bulwer Lytton }} (Online text at wikisource.org)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton, with Numerous Extracts from her Ms. Autobiography and Other Original Documents, published in vindication of her memory |url=https://archive.org/details/liferosinaladyl00devegoog |last=Devey |first=Louisa |year=1887 |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co |location=London |access-date=28 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628231618/http://www.archive.org/details/liferosinaladyl00devegoog |archive-date=28 June 2011 |url-status=live }} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)</ref> She continued attacking her husband's character for several years.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=186}}
[[File:Edward Bulwer Lytton Disderi BNF gallica.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Bulwer-Lytton in later life]]
The death of Bulwer's mother in 1843 meant his "exhaustion of toil and study had been completed by great anxiety and grief," and by "about the January of 1844, I was thoroughly shattered."<ref name="LyttonWaterpatient">{{Cite book |title=in Pamphlets and Sketches |chapter=Confessions of a Water-Patient |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/pamphletsandsket00lyttuoft#page/48/mode/2up |author=Lord Lytton |edition=[[Knebworth House|Knebworth]] |year =1875 |publisher=George Routledge and Sons |location=London |pages=49–75 |access-date=28 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324090403/http://archive.org/stream/pamphletsandsket00lyttuoft#page/48/mode/2up |archive-date=24 March 2012 |url-status=live }} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)</ref><ref name="Bulwersletter">{{Cite book |last=Bulwer |editor=R. T. Trall |title=The Herald of Health, and The Water-cure journal (see title page of January edition, p. 5) |chapter=Bulwer's Letter on Water-Cure |volume=35–36 |date=April 1863 |pages=149–154 (see p. 151) |publisher=R. T. Trall & Co |location=New York |chapter-url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066610265;q1=captain;start=1;size=100;page=root;view=image;seq=141;num=149 |access-date=26 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119070157/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066610265;q1=captain;start=1;size=100;page=root;view=image;seq=141;num=149 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his mother's room at [[Knebworth House]], which he inherited, he "had inscribed above the mantelpiece a request that future generations preserve the room as his beloved mother had used it." It remains hardly changed to this day.<ref>{{Citation |title=Knebworth House Antique Photographs |chapter=Mrs. Bulwer-Lytton's Room |chapter-url=http://www.knebworthhouse.com/specialtours/antiquephotos/page7.html |access-date=28 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713162832/http://www.knebworthhouse.com/specialtours/antiquephotos/page7.html |archive-date=13 July 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 20 February 1844, in accordance with his mother's will, he changed his surname from Bulwer to Bulwer-Lytton and assumed the arms of Lytton by royal licence.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=186}} His widowed mother had done the same in 1811. His brothers remained plain "Bulwer".{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

By chance, Bulwer-Lytton encountered a copy of "[[Captain R. T. Claridge|Captain Claridge]]'s work on the "[[water cure (therapy)|Water Cure]]", as practised by [[Vincent Priessnitz|Priessnitz]], at Graefenberg" and, "making allowances for certain exaggerations therein", pondered the option of travelling to Graefenberg, but preferred to find something closer to home, with access to his own doctors in case of failure: "I who scarcely lived through a day without leech or potion!".<ref name="LyttonWaterpatient" /><ref name=Bulwersletter /> After reading a pamphlet by Doctor James Wilson, who operated a hydropathic establishment with [[James Manby Gully]] at [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]], he stayed there for "some nine or ten weeks", after which he "continued the system some seven weeks longer under Doctor Weiss, at [[Petersham, London|Petersham]]", then again at "Doctor Schmidt's magnificent hydropathic establishment at Boppart" (at the former Marienberg Convent at [[Boppard]]), after developing a cold and fever upon his return home.<ref name="LyttonWaterpatient"/>

The English [[Rosicrucian]] society, founded in 1867 by [[Robert Wentworth Little]], claimed Bulwer-Lytton as their "Grand Patron", but he wrote to the society complaining that he was "extremely surprised" by their use of the title, as he had "never sanctioned such."<ref>R. A. Gilbert, "The Supposed Rosy Crucian Society", in Caron et al., eds., ''Ésotérisme, Gnoses et Imaginaire Symbolique'', Leuven: Peeters, 2001, p. 399.</ref> Nevertheless, a number of esoteric groups have continued to claim Bulwer-Lytton as their own, chiefly because some of his writings – such as the 1842 book ''[[Zanoni]]'' – have included Rosicrucian and other esoteric notions. According to the [[Fulham Football Club]], he once resided in the original [[Craven Cottage]], today the site of their stadium.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fulham-fc.co.uk/stadium/ |title=The Stadium History of Fulham FC |date=23 July 2020 |access-date=19 April 2024}}</ref>

Bulwer-Lytton had long suffered from a disease of the ear, and for the last two or three years of his life lived in [[Torquay]] nursing his health.<ref name="mitchell(2003)pp232"/> After an operation to cure [[deafness]], an abscess formed in the ear and burst; he endured intense pain for a week and died at 2&nbsp;am on 18 January 1873, just short of his 70th birthday.<ref name="mitchell(2003)pp232">{{Cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Leslie George |title=Bulwer Lytton: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Man of Letters |year=2003 |publisher=Hambledon Continuum |location=London; New York |isbn=1852854235 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bulwerlyttonrise0000mitc }}</ref> The cause of death was unclear but it was thought the infection had affected his brain and caused a fit.<ref name="mitchell(2003)pp232"/> Rosina outlived him by nine years. Against his wishes, Bulwer-Lytton was honoured with a burial in [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref name="Westminster">{{cite web |url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/history-research/monuments-gravestones/people/32932 |title=Famous people / organisations |first=PixelToCode |last=pixeltocode.uk |website=Westminster Abbey |access-date=29 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107172839/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/history-research/monuments-gravestones/people/32932 |archive-date=7 January 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref> His unfinished history ''Athens: Its Rise and Fall'' was published posthumously.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}