A Strange Story

A Strange Story

Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Edward

Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861

Internet Archive

1861

George Eliot to Sara Sophia Hennell, 06 December 1861. “I must tell you a story which Mr. Wilkie Collins told us about Bulwer the other night. I don't know whether you are reading "The Strange Story," which from its air of lofty science along with representations of preternatural power, is, in our opinion of rather unwholesome tendency for popular reading -- and indeed would be wicked if it were not done by Bulwer in perfectly good faith, as it is. He is quite caught by the spirit of the marvellous, and a little while ago, at Dickens's house, was telling of a French woman who could raise the dead, but only at great expense. "What," said Dickens, "is the cause of this expense in raising the dead?" "The Perfumes!" said Bulwer, with deep seriousness, stretching out his hand with his usual air of lofty emphasis. -- I feel as if I ought not to tell you this, for if you repeat it to anybody else, I don't know what sort of monstrosity it may be turned into by the time it gets to the fifth narrator. I ought also to tell you, by way of balance to this absurdity, that Bulwer has behaved very nicely to me, and that -- quite apart from that personal question -- I have a great respect for the energetic industry with which he has made the most of his powers. He has been writing diligently in very various departments for more than thirty years, constantly improving his position, and profiting by the lessons of public opinion and of other writers.” GEL 3: 468-9 

Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Edward, A Strange Story, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57574

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/c1bee0d56450e88c51a939c0b54d4d08.pdf