Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Rosina Bulwer Lytton Baroness Lytton
-
Standard Name: Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton,,, Baroness
Birth Name: Rosina Wheeler
Married Name: Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Pseudonym: Hon. George Scott
RBLBL
wrote prolifically after her separation from her husband in 1836, penning sixteen novels, as well as a collection of essays and an autobiography. A vein of polemic runs through her work regarding the treatment of women, particularly married women, under nineteenth-century British law. She encountered great difficulty in getting her work published because of her notoriety and the pressure that her husband, a successful novelist, exerted on publishers. He even obtained legal injunctions against her work, which often parodied him.
Blain, Virginia. “Rosina Bulwer Lytton and the Rage of the Unheard”. The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cultural formation
L. E. L.
There are indications, however, that a rather suspect class standing contributed along with somewhat bohemian behaviour to the difficulty she had about weathering scandal. Benjamin Disraeli
famously and snobbishly wrote of a party at the
Family and Intimate relationships
Isa Blagden
IB
nursed Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
, diplomat, author, and son of Rosina Bulwer Lytton
, through a serious bout of gastric fever.
Raymond, William O. “Our Lady of Bellosguardo: A Pastel Portrait”. University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol.
xii
, 1943, pp. 446-63.
450
Browning, Robert, and Isa Blagden. “Introduction”. Dearest Isa: Robert Browning’s Letters to Isabella Blagden, edited by Edward C. McAleer, Greenwood Press, 1970, p. xix - xxxiii.
xxviii
Family and Intimate relationships
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton first Baron Lytton
On 29 August 1827 Edward Bulwer
(later Bulwer-Lytton) married Rosina Wheeler
; his mother disapproved of the marriage and stopped his allowance.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. “Introduction”. A Blighted Life, edited by Marie Mulvey Roberts, Thoemmes, 1994, p. vi - xxxvi.
xvi
Family and Intimate relationships
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton first Baron Lytton
On 8 November 1831, Edward Bulwer
's second child with his wife Rosina
, Edward Robert Bulwer
, was born. He grew up to be a writer like both of his parents, as well as a diplomat.
Sadleir, Michael. Bulwer: A Panorama. Constable, 1931.
161
Family and Intimate relationships
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton first Baron Lytton
In April 1836 Edward Bulwer
and his wife separated. Rosina Bulwer
(later Bulwer-Lytton) retained custody of their children for two years. In 1838, Edward took custody of the children and denied her access to them...
Family and Intimate relationships
Constance Lytton
CL
's father, Edward Robert Bulwer
(first earl Lytton) or Owen Meredith, was a child of the abusive marriage between two writers, Rosina Bulwer Lytton
and Edward Bulwer
(later Bulwer-Lytton). Edward Robert became a...
Family and Intimate relationships
Constance Lytton
Her paternal grandmother, Rosina Bulwer Lytton
, became a novelist and a supporter of women's rights after separating from her husband. She died on 12 March 1882, when Constance was just thirteen. For Constance (who...
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Wheeler
After twelve years of marriage, AW
took both her daughters (of whom the younger, Rosina
, was the future novelist Rosina Bulwer Lytton) and left her husband
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Sadleir, Michael. Bulwer: A Panorama. Constable, 1931.
72-3
Kelly, Gary, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 158. Gale Research, 1996.
349
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Wheeler
The younger daughter, Rosina
(born on 4 November 1802), as Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton, achieved some fame as a novelist and notoriety as a woman violently at odds with her husband.
Family and Intimate relationships
Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton first Earl Lytton
His mother was the novelist Rosina Bulwer Lytton
. Her often violent marriage to Edward Bulwer Lytton
ended in a very public separation. While she initially retained custody of their two children, Emily and young...
Fictionalization
Lady Caroline Lamb
The other great love of her life, her husband, was equally productive for fictionalized versions of her character and doings. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography cites among novels dealing with her marriage Thomas Lister
Fictionalization
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton first Baron Lytton
Despite the controversy surrounding some of his early writings, Bulwer-Lytton was recognised by mid-Victorian critics as a significant and accomplished novelist. Once Rosina Bulwer Lytton
, his estranged wife, turned to writing to support herself...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Isabella Spence
During the 1820s Spence and Benger, then past their youth and each living on a pittance, were associated in running a salon on the model of those of the rich (like Lady Holland) or the...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
At the same period EOB
was a friend of another miscellaneous writer, Elizabeth Isabella Spence
, who entertained in the same eccentric, low-budget style. These two elderly ladies (Spence was ten years older than Benger)...
Timeline
June 1874: In an infamous Fortnightly Review article,...
Building item
June 1874
In an infamous Fortnightly Review article, Henry Maudsley
condemned education for women as injurious to their bodies and as presaging a sexless race.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
124-6
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
125
1943: Lady Eve Balfour, an early proponent of organic...
Building item
1943
Lady Eve Balfour
, an early proponent of organic farming (an earl's daughter whose dazzling family connections made her a descendant of the writer Rosina Bulwer Lytton
and niece of the suffragists Frances Balfour
and...
Texts
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. A Blighted Life. The London Publishing Office, 1880.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. A Blighted Life. Editor Roberts, Marie Mulvey, Thoemmes, 1994.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Behind the Scenes. C. J. Skeet, 1854, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Bianca Cappello. William H. Colver, 1843.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Cheveley; or, The Man of Honour. Edward Bull, 1839, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Clumber Chase; or, Love’s Riddle Solved by a Royal Sphinx. 1871, 3 vols.
Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron, and Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton. “Editorial Materials”. Letters of the Late Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, to His Wife, edited by Louisa Devey, G. W. Dillingham, 1976.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. “Introduction”. A Blighted Life, edited by Marie Mulvey Roberts, Thoemmes, 1994, p. vi - xxxvi.
Ellis, Stewart Marsh, and Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton. “Introduction and Notes”. Unpublished Letters of Lady Bulwer Lytton to A.E. Chalon, R.A., Nash, 1914, pp. 9 - 26; various pages.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Lady Bulwer Lytton’s Appeal to the Justice and Charity of the English Public. Printed for and published by the author, 1857.
Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron, and Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton. Letters of the Late Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, to His Wife. W. Swan Sonnenschein, 1884.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Memoirs of a Muscovite. T. C. Newby, 1844, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Miriam Sedley; or, The Tares and the Wheat. W. Shoberl, 1851, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Refutation of an Audacious Forgery of the Dowager Lady Lytton’s Name to a Book of the Publication of Which she was Totally Ignorant. Privately printed for the author, 1880.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. Shells from the Sands of Time. Bickers and Son, 1876, http://U of Toronto.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The Budget of the Bubble Family. Edward Bull, 1840, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The Collected Letters of Rosina Bulwer Lytton. Editor Roberts, Mary Mulvey, Pickering and Chatto, 2008, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The Household Fairy. Hall, 1870.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The Peer’s Daughters. T. C. Newby, 1849, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The Prince-Duke and the Page. T. and W. Boone, 1841, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The School for Husbands. A. Hart, 1852.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The School for Husbands. C. J. Skeet, 1852, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. The World and His Wife; or, A Person of Consequence. C. J. Skeet, 1858, 3 vols.
Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness, and Stewart Marsh Ellis. Unpublished Letters of Lady Bulwer Lytton to A. E. Chalon, R. A. E. Nash, 1914.