Значение слова LYTTON в Литературной энциклопедии

LYTTON

1) EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON-BULWER, 1ST LORD (1803-1873).-Novelist and statesman, third son of General Earle Bulwer of Heydon and Dalling, Norfolk, and of Elizabeth Lytton, heiress of Knebworth, Herts, was _b._ in London, and _ed._ privately and at Camb. He began to write when still a boy, and _pub._, in 1820, _Ismael and other Poems_. His marriage in 1825 to Rosina Wheeler, an Irish beauty, caused a quarrel with his mother, and the loss of his income, and thus incidentally gave the impulse to his marvellous literary activity. The marriage proved an unhappy one, and was terminated by a separation in 1836. During its continuance, however, his life was a busy and productive one, its literary results including _Falkland_ (1827), _Pelham_ (1828), _Paul Clifford_ (1830), _Eugene Aram_ (1832), _The Pilgrims of the Rhine_, _Last Days of Pompeii_, _Rienzi_ (1835), besides _England and the English_, _Athens its Rise and Fall_, and innumerable tales, essays, and articles in various reviews and magazines, including the _New Monthly_, of which he became ed. in 1831. In the same year he entered Parliament as a Liberal, but gradually gravitated towards Conservatism, and held office in the second government of Lord Derby as Colonial Sec. 1858-59. As a politician he devoted himself largely to questions affecting authors, such as copyright and the removal of taxes upon literature. He continued his literary labours with almost unabated energy until the end of his life, his works later than those already mentioned including the _Last of the Barons_ (1843), _Harold_ (1848), the famous triad of _The Caxtons_ (1850), _My Novel_ (1853), and _What will he do with it?_ (1859); and his studies in the supernatural, _Zanoni_ (1842), and _A Strange Story_ (1862). Later still were _The Coming Race_ (1870) and _Kenelm Chillingly_ (1873). To the drama he contributed three plays which still enjoy popularity, _The Lady of Lyons_, _Richelieu_, both (1838), and _Money_ (1840). In poetry he was less successful. _The New Timon_, a satire, is the best remembered, largely, however, owing to the reply by Tennyson which it brought down upon the author, who had attacked him. In his works, numbering over 60, L. showed an amazing versatility, both in subject and treatment, but they have not, with perhaps the exception of the Caxton series, kept their original popularity. Their faults are artificiality, and forced brilliancy, and as a rule they rather dazzle by their cleverness than touch by their truth to nature. L. was raised to the peerage in 1866. _Life, Letters, etc._, of Lord Lytton by his son, 2 vols., comes down to 1832 only. Political Memoir prefaced to _Speeches_ (2 vols., 1874). 2) LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT BULWER, 1ST EARL OF LYTTON (1831-1891).-Poet and statesman, _s._ of the above, was _ed._ at Harrow and Bonn, and thereafter was private sec. to his uncle, Sir H. Bulwer, afterwards Lord Dalling and Bulwer (_q.v._), at Washington and Florence. Subsequently he held various diplomatic appointments at other European capitals. In 1873 he succeeded his _f._ in the title, and in 1876 became Viceroy of India. He was _cr._ an Earl on his retirement in 1880, and was in 1887 appointed Ambassador at Paris, where he _d._ in 1891. He valued himself much more as a poet than as a man of affairs; but, though he had in a considerable degree some of the qualities of a poet, he never quite succeeded in commanding the recognition of either the public or the critics. His writings, usually appearing under the pseudonym of "Owen Meredith," include _Clytemnestra_ (1855), _The Wanderer_ (1857), _Lucile_ (1860), _Chronicles and Characters_ (1868), _Orval, or the Fool of Time_ (1869), _Fables in Song_ (1874), and _King Poppy_ (1892). As Viceroy of India he introduced important reforms, and his dispatches were remarkable for their fine literary form.

Литературная энциклопедия. 2012