Red calf spine and corners with raised and gilt banding and gilt title. Red and blue marbled boards, end papers and page edges.

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A very good copy

Godolphin is a satirical 19th-century British romance novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It is about the life of an idealistic man, Percy Godolphin, and his eventual lover, Constance Vernon. Written as a frame narrative, Godolphin provides a satirical insight into the day-to-day lives of the early 19th-century British elite. The story is told through the narration of two protagonists, Percy Godolphin and Constance Vernon, as they rise to prominence among the London elite.

Godolphin was published two years after The Reform Bill passed which put an end to the exclusive high class in England. Bulwer-Lytton, being a politician, was a member of this British elite. Literary scholar William Cragg reveals that the original novel published in 1833 was replaced in 1840 with a revised copy. Bulwer-Lytton received very harsh criticisms upon the novel’s original release due to its extremely harsh criticism of specific rival politicians and its appearance as a celebration of the Reform Bill.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies from June 1858 to June 1859, choosing Richard Clement Moody as founder of British Columbia. He declined the Crown of Greece in 1862 after King Otto abdicated. He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866. His detention of writer Rosina Bulwer Lytton, whom he had married, in an insane asylum provoked a public outcry. Bulwer-Lytton’s works sold and paid him well. He coined famous phrases like “the great unwashed”, “pursuit of the almighty dollar”, “the pen is mightier than the sword”, “dweller on the threshold”, and the opening phrase “It was a dark and stormy night.” The sardonic Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, held annually since 1982, claims to seek the “opening sentence of the worst of all possible novels”.