Editing Edward Bulwer-Lytton (section)

==Legacy==
Bulwer-Lytton's works had an influence in a number of fields.

===Quotations===
Bulwer-Lytton's most famous quotation is "[[The pen is mightier than the sword]]" from his play ''Richelieu'':

<blockquote>beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword</blockquote>

He popularized the phrase "pursuit of the [[almighty dollar]]" from his novel ''[[The Coming Race]]'',<ref>
Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, ''The Coming Race'' (London, England: William Blackwood and Sons, 1871),
[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LO8BAAAAQAAJ/page/n9 page 2] {{Webarchive 
|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527081751/http://books.google.com/books?id=LO8BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2 |date=27 May 2013}}
</ref> and he is credited with "[[the great unwashed]]", using this disparaging term in his 1830 novel ''Paul Clifford'':

<blockquote>He is certainly a man who bathes and "lives cleanly", (two especial charges preferred against him by Messrs. the Great Unwashed).<ref>{{Cite book |author=Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton |author2=Eric Robinson |title=Paul Clifford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZtCAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR5 |year=1838 |publisher=Baudry's European Library |page=x, footnote |access-date=7 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508213524/https://books.google.com/books?id=jZtCAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PR5|archive-date=8 May 2017 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref> </blockquote>

===Theosophy===
The writers of [[Theosophy (Boehmian)|theosophy]] were among those influenced by Bulwer-Lytton's work. [[Annie Besant]] and especially [[Helena Blavatsky]] incorporated his thoughts and ideas, particularly from ''The Last Days of Pompeii'', ''Vril, the Power of the Coming Race'' and ''[[Zanoni]]'' in her own books.<ref>Edward Bulwer-Lytton, ''The Coming Race'', Introduction by David Seed, Wesleyan University Press, 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w3-xlc8edbEC&dq=%22The+Coming+Race+had+an+influence+on+figures+like+Madame+Blavatsky%22&pg=PR42 p. xlii] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508222333/https://books.google.com/books?id=w3-xlc8edbEC&pg=PR42&lpg=PR42&dq=%22The+Coming+Race+had+an+influence+on+figures+like+Madame+Blavatsky%22&source=bl&ots=_VXvtB0qiU&sig=22O56HxmSUs0ESBLU3IsEp8d00g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=V7QFUu7VGMn24QT4zYDoAg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Coming%20Race%20had%20an%20influence%20on%20figures%20like%20Madame%20Blavatsky%22&f=false |date=8 May 2017}}</ref><ref>Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', Scarecrow Press, 2009, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7JKw5FYA4GgC&dq=%22Blavatsky+drew+a+good+deal+of+inspiration+from+Bulwer-Lytton%27s%22&pg=PA46 "Blavatsky, Madame (1831–1991)"].</ref>

===Contest===
{{Further|Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest}}
Bulwer-Lytton's name lives on in the annual [[Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest]], in which contestants think up terrible openings for imaginary novels, inspired by the first line of his 1830 novel ''[[Paul Clifford]]'':<ref>Edward Bulwer Lytton, ''Paul Clifford'' (Paris, France: Baudry's European Library, 1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=jZtCAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 page 1] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127161551/http://books.google.com/books?id=jZtCAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 |date=27 November 2013}}</ref>

<blockquote>[[It was a dark and stormy night]]; the rain fell in torrents – except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.</blockquote>

Entrants in the contest seek to capture the rapid changes in point of view, the florid language, and the atmosphere of the full sentence.<ref>{{cite web |last=Infopédia |title=Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Infopédia |url=https://www.infopedia.pt/$edward-bulwer-lytton |access-date=2021-08-15 |website=Infopédia - Dicionários Porto Editora |language=pt}}</ref> The opening was popularized by the ''[[Peanuts]]'' comic strip, in which [[Snoopy]]'s sessions on the typewriter usually began with "[[It was a dark and stormy night]]".<ref>{{cite news |first=Tracy |last=Mumford |title=Who really wrote 'it was a dark and stormy night'? |url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/27/bcst-books-dark-and-stormy-night |work=MPR |date=2015-10-27}}</ref> The same words also form the first sentence of Madeleine L'Engle's [[Newbery Medal]]–winning novel ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]''. Similar wording appears in Edgar Allan Poe's 1831 short story "[[Bon-Bon (short story)|The Bargain Lost]]", although not at the very beginning. It reads:

<blockquote>It was a dark and stormy night. The rain fell in cataracts; and drowsy citizens started, from dreams of the deluge, to gaze upon the boisterous sea, which foamed and bellowed for admittance into the proud towers and marble palaces. Who would have thought of passions so fierce in that calm water that slumbers all day long? At a slight alabaster stand, trembling beneath the ponderous tomes which it supported, sat the hero of our story.</blockquote>

===Operas===
Several of Bulwer-Lytton's novels were made into operas. One of them, ''[[Rienzi|Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen]]'' (1842) by [[Richard Wagner]],<ref>{{cite book |first=Barry |last=Millington |title=The Wagner Compendium|location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=2001 |page=275 |isbn=9780500282748 |url=https://archive.org/details/wagnercompendium0000unse/page/274/mode/2up}}</ref> eventually became more famous than the novel.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} ''Leonora'' (1846) by [[William Henry Fry]], the first European-styled "grand" opera composed in the United States, is based on Bulwer-Lytton's play ''[[The Lady of Lyons]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=John Tasker |last2=Bellows |first2=George Kent |title=A Short History of Music in America |location=New York |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell |year=1967 |page=128 |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofmu00howa_0/page/128/mode/2up}}</ref> as is [[Frederic Cowen]]'s first opera ''[[Pauline (Cowen opera)|Pauline]]'' (1876).<ref>{{cite book |first=Eric Walter |last=White |title=The Rise of English Opera |year=1951 |location=London |publisher=J. Lehmann |page=118 |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofenglishope0000whit_j7l0/page/118/mode/2up}}</ref> Verdi rival [[Errico Petrella]]'s most successful opera, ''[[Jone (opera)|Jone]]'' (1858), was based on Bulwer-Lytton's ''[[The Last Days of Pompeii]]'', and was performed all over the world until the 1880s, and in Italy until 1910.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred |last=Loewenberg |title=Annals of Opera, 1597–1940 |location=Totowa, N.J. |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |year=1978 |isbn=9780874718515 |at=col. 930–931 |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofopera1590000loew/page/n493/mode/2up}}</ref> ''Harold, the Last of the Saxons'' (1848) provided character names (but little else) for Verdi's opera ''[[Aroldo]]'' (1857).<ref>{{cite book |first=Jullian |last=Budden |title=The Operas of Verdi |volume=2 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1978 |page=337 |url=https://archive.org/details/operasofverdi0002budd/page/336/mode/2up}}</ref>

===Theatrical adaptations===
Shortly after their first publication, ''The Last Days of Pompeii'', ''Rienzi'', and ''Ernest Maltravers'' all received successful stage performances in New York.
The plays were written by Louisa Medina, one of the most successful playwrights of the 19th century. ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' had the longest continuous stage run in New York at the time with 29 straight performances.<ref>''Plays by Early American Women, 1775-1850'', Amelia Howe Kritzer, Ed. (1998) Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.</ref>

===Magazines===
In addition to his political and literary work, Bulwer-Lytton became the editor of the ''New Monthly'' in 1831, but he resigned the following year. In 1841, he started the ''Monthly Chronicle'', a semi-scientific magazine. During his career he wrote poetry, prose, and stage plays; his last novel was ''Kenelm Chillingly'', which was in course of publication in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' at the time of his death in 1873.{{sfn|Waugh|1911|p=186}}

===Translations===
Bulwer-Lytton's works of fiction and non-fiction were translated in his day and since then into many languages, including Serbian (by [[Laza Kostic]]), German, Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Finnish, and Spanish. In 1879, his ''Ernest Maltravers'' was the first complete novel from the West to be translated into Japanese.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keene |first=Donald |title=Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era |year=1984 |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|location=New York |isbn=0030628148 |page=62}}</ref>

===Place names===
In [[Brisbane]], [[Queensland]], Australia, the suburb of [[Lytton, Queensland|Lytton]], the town of [[Bulwer, Queensland|Bulwer]] on [[Moreton Island]] (Moorgumpin) and the neighbourhood (former island) of [[Bulwer Island]] are named after him.<ref>{{Cite QPN|43599|Lytton|access-date=2 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="qpnt">{{cite QPN|5168|Bulwer|town in City of Brisbane|access-date=28 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite QPN|5169|Bulwer Island|neighbourhood in the City of Brisbane|access-date=27 October 2020}}</ref> The township of Lytton, Quebec (today part of [[Montcerf-Lytton, Quebec|Montcerf-Lytton]]) was named after him<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/ToposWeb/fiche.aspx?no_seq=37667 |language=fr |title=Lytton |publisher=[[Commission de toponymie du Québec]] |work=Banque de noms de lieux du Québec |access-date=16 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173531/http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/CT/toposweb/fiche.aspx?no_seq=37667 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> as was [[Lytton, British Columbia]], and [[Lytton, Iowa]]. Lytton Road in [[Gisborne, New Zealand]], was named after the novelist. Later a state secondary school, [[Lytton High School]], was founded in the road.<ref name="gisborne">{{Cite book |last1=Meade |first1=Geoffrey Thomas |title=History of the school, 1961–1985: Lytton High School |date=1986 |publisher=Thomas Adams Printing |page=3}}</ref> Also in New Zealand, Bulwer is a small locality in Waihinau Bay in the outer Pelorus Sound, New Zealand. It can be reached by 77&nbsp;km of winding, mostly unsealed, road from Rai Valley. A weekly mail boat service delivers mail and also offers passenger services. In London, Lytton Road in the suburb of [[Pinner]], where the novelist lived, is named after him.<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Ben Weinreb|Weinreb, Ben]] |author2=[[Christopher Hibbert|Hibbert, Christopher]] |title=The London Encyclopaedia |edition=reprint |year=1992 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |page=617|title-link=The London Encyclopaedia }}</ref>

===Portrayal on television===
Bulwer-Lytton was portrayed by the actor [[Brett Usher]] in the 1978 television serial ''[[Disraeli (TV serial)|Disraeli]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (TV Mini-Series 1978) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078601/|access-date=2021-02-08}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Telotte, Leigh Ehlers, 1949- |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1162842105 |title=QUEEN VICTORIA ON SCREEN film and television depictions from the silent era to today. |date=2020 |publisher=MCFARLAND |isbn=978-1-4766-3878-2 |location=[S.l.] |page=178 |oclc=1162842105}}</ref>