BULWER.--Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer was a younger son of General
Bulwer of Heydon Hall, Norfolk, England. He was born, in 1806, to wealth
and ease, but was early and always a student. Educated at Cambridge, he
took the Chancellor's prize for a poem on _Sculpture_. His first public
effort was a volume of fugitive poems, called _Weeds and Wild Flowers_, of
more promise than merit. In 1827 he published _Falkland_, and very soon
after _Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman_. The first was not
received favorably; but _Pelham_ was at once popular, neither for the
skill of the plot nor for its morality, but because it describes the
character, dissipations, and good qualities of a fashionable young man,
which are always interesting to an English public. Those novels that
immediately followed are so alike in general features that they may be
called the Pelham series. Of these the principal are _The Disowned_,
_Devereux_, and _Paul Clifford_--the last of which throws a sentimental,
rosy light upon the person and adventures of a highwayman; but it is too
unreal to have done as much injury as the _Pirate's Own Book_, or the
_Adventures of Jack Sheppard_.
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