SOURCE: “The Influence of Bulwer-Lytton in His Own Times,” in Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Fiction of New Regions, University of Georgia Press, 1976, pp. 222-34.

In the following essay, Christensen discusses Bulwer's influence on such authors as Poe, Thackeray, and Dickens.

Bulwer wanted his art to possess a timeless validity, and this study has generally emphasized those aspects of his work that imply his desire to appeal to the ages. Yet since he also achieved immense popularity within the context of his own age, his particular influence upon his contemporaries and immediate successors is also a matter of interest. To assess this influence fully would require one to consider the force not only of his fiction but also of his very carefully constructed plays—especially the enormously successful and frequently revived The Lady of Lyons (1838) and Money (1840). In summarizing the evidence of his influence, I shall nevertheless remain within the...