Godolphin

Godolphin

The Project Gutenberg EBook Godolphin, by E. B. Lytton, Complete
#183 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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Title: Godolphin, Complete
Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7756] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 27, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
GODOLPHIN, BY LYTTON ***

This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath and David Widger


GODOLPHIN By Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton)
TO COUNT ALFRED D'ORSAY.
MY DEAR COUNT D'ORSAY,
When the parentage of Godolphin was still unconfessed and unknown,
you were pleased to encourage his first struggles with the world: Now,
will you permit the father he has just discovered to re-introduce him to
your notice? I am sorry to say, however, that my unfilial offspring,
having been so long disowned, is not sufficiently grateful for being
acknowledged at last: he says that he belongs to a very numerous
family, and, wishing to be distinguished from his brothers, desires not
only to reclaim your acquaintance, but to borrow your name. Nothing
less will content his ambition than the most public opportunity in his
power of parading his obligations to the most accomplished gentleman
of our time. Will you, then, allow him to make his new appearance in
the world under your wing, and thus suffer the son as well as the father
to attest the kindness of your heart and to boast the honour of your
friendship?
Believe me, My dear Count d'Orsay, With the sincerest regard, Yours,
very faithfully and truly, E. B. L.

PREFACE TO GODOLPHIN.
In the Prefaces to this edition of my works, I have occasionally so far
availed myself of that privilege of self-criticism which the French
comic writer, Mons. Picord, maintains or exemplifies in the collection
of his plays,--as, if not actually to sit in judgment on my own
performances, still to insinuate some excuse for their faults by
extenuatory depositions as to their character and intentions. Indeed, a

writer looking back to the past is unconsciously inclined to think that
he may separate himself from those children of his brain which have
long gone forth to the world; and though he may not expatiate on the
merits his paternal affection would ascribe to them, that he may speak
at least of the mode in which they were trained and reared--of the hopes
he cherished, or the objects he entertained, when he finally dismissed
them to the opinions of others and the ordeal of Fate or Time.
For my part, I own that even when I have thought but little of the value
of a work, I have always felt an interest in the author's account of its
origin and formation, and, willing to suppose that what thus affords a
gratification to my own curiosity, may not be wholly unattractive to
others, I shall thus continue from time to time to play the Showman to
my own machinery, and explain the principle of the mainspring and the
movement of the wheels.
This novel was begun somewhere in the third year of my authorship,
and completed in the fourth. It was, therefore, composed almost
simultaneously with Eugene Aram, and afforded to me at least some
relief from the gloom of that village tragedy. It is needless to observe
how dissimilar in point of scene, character, and fable, the one is from
the other; yet they are alike in this--that both attempt to deal with one
of the most striking problems in the spiritual history of man, viz., the
frustration or abuse of power in a superior intellect originally inclined
to good. Perhaps there is no problem that more fascinates the attention
of a man of some earnestness at that period of his life, when his eye
first disengages itself from the external phenomena around him, and his
curiosity leads him to examine the cause