Comments on: The Edward Bulwer-Lytton Anti-Defamation League

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:46:36 +0000

I must disagree, gentlemen. I do think that passage is outstandingly horrible. It’s not the the first ten words in the sentence that cause all the giggling. It’s the way he wanders off into a verbal cul de sac with “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).” If you review the best of the winners of the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest, you’ll find that similar sidetracks are the essence of their parodies’ hilarity.

By: Bob Kincaid

Bob Kincaid — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:43:15 +0000

Eugene,

You have Charles Schulz to thank. It was all those panels of Snoopy, perched with a typewriter atop his doghouse, ever the struggling canine novelist, typing those very words.

By: Hal Gordon

Hal Gordon — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:56:23 +0000

Bulwer-Lytton’s ego apparently swelled with his success, which in turn invited ridicule. As Disraeli once said of Charles Greville, another Victorian writer, “He was the vainest being who ever lived — and I do not forget Cicero, and I know Lord Lytton.”

By: Michael Gury

Michael Gury — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:47:08 +0000

Dear Mr. Finerman,

I am entirely in agreement with your thesis that Mr. Bulwer-Lytton should not be considered a lower life form in the canon of literature. There were (and still are) greater stinkers than he. And in fact, should we calculate the trajectory of the publishing industry since his time, we might find that his work stimulated a number of interesting literary and media veins and gestated numerous authors who wrote stuff that was ten times as shitty and made ten times as much money. Bodice-rippers, various romance enterprises, sensational publications, soap operas, comic books, movies, and so forth: All making tons of money. That he won a seat in Parliament is no different than Al Franken’s ascendancy to the U.S. Senate.

So thank you for helping us remember and celebrate Mr. Bulwer-Lytton’s birthday. I can only say that at the moment it is a bright and sunny day where I live, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a dark and stormy night.