Review of Books: Pelham; or, the Adventures of a Gentleman. By E. L. Bulwer

• Posted by mgr on March 8th, 2010 filed in BIBLIOTHEK, Bulwer-Lytton, HISTORISCHES, Rezensionen
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Colburn’s Modern Novelists
Pelham; or, the Adventures of a Gentleman. By E. L. Bulwer, Esq. Revised Edition, in Two Volumes. With a New Introduction and Notes. 1835.

As we found occasion once before to observe, in another work, Mr Bulwer’s productions — his works of fiction, we mean — “have all been successful ; and, be it ever borne in mind, they are not — not one of them — of the class distinguished as ‘fashionable novels’ — poor, sickly, feeble things, that can hardly flutter through their ephemeral existence — wretched deformities, at the bare recollection of which our very stomach turns. No ; Bulwer’s novels have all good sound vigorous stamina, and will live, and flourish, and witness the extinction of whole hosts of the fashionable tribe. Pelham, the first of the set, is distinguished by a vein of light, yet caustic satire —by accurate views of society in high life and in low life, in London and in Paris—by fresh and spirited sketches of character. Its hero, in tasteful and graceful, rather than in fashionable costume, with a slight simple gage d’amour upon his finger, is an elegantly-minded man—a man of the world.” In this view — and its correctness will not, we believe, be questioned — Mr Colburn could not have made a happier commencement of a new and beautiful series of standard novels than by re-introducing “Pelham ” under an exterior well suited to the drawing-room or the boudoir. In other words, this edition of “Pelham ” is not only correct and elegant in form and typography, but it is richly embellished; first, by a striking (somewhat flattering) portrait of the author; secondly, by a vignette title-page, engraved by Finden, from a design by Wright, representing M. Margot in his ludicrous descent, in a basket, from Mrs Green’s window.

It is, however, in a literary view that the new edition of “Pelham ” is most valuable. In a Preface, written expressly for it, Mr Bulwer says: — When I was yet a boy in years, but with some experience of the world, (which I entered prematurely,) I had the good fortune to be confined to my room by a severe illness, towards the end of a London season. All my friends were out of town, and I was left to such resources as solitude can suggest to the tedium of sickness. I amused myself by writing with incredible difficulty and labour (for till then prose was a country almost as unknown to myself as to Monsieur Jourdain some half a dozen tales and sketches. Among them was the story called ‘Mortimer, or Memoirs of a Gentleman,’ which the reader will find appended to this preface. Its commencement is almost word for word the same as that of ‘Pelham ;’ but its design was exactly opposite to that of the latter and later wort. ‘Mortimer’ was intended to show the manner in which the world deteriorates its votary, and ‘Pelham’ on the contrary, conveys the newer, and, I believe, sounder moral, of showing how a man of sense can subject the usages of the world to himself instead of being conquered by them, and gradually grow wise by the very foibles of his youth.
Intrinsically considered, “Mortimer” is a very striking little sketch ; and, regarding it as the germ from which, in after years, “Pelham” itself was matured and brought to light, it is exceedingly curious, and full of interest.

We are not aware of any more judicious step which Mr Colburn has taken, in his career as a publisher, than that of undertaking the present series of novels, harmonizing, in all respects—in economy as well as in elegance—with the latest edition of Sir Walter Scott’s admirable fictions.

From: The Court Journal. Gazette of the Fashionable World. Jan 3, 1835. No. 297.

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