5 Edward Bulwer-Lytton first editions are documented on this shelf, from Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman (1828) to The Caxtons: A Family Picture (1849) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Edward Bulwer-Lytton title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Edward Bulwer-Lytton copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman — 1828 · Henry ColburnFirst edition (Sadleir 431, Wolff 953), three volumes, published anonymously by Henry Colburn. Wolff's collation corrects Sadleir's own entry, recording volume I as running to 340 pages rather than the 330 pages Sadleir states. Half-titles are present in volumes I and II. Two pages of publisher's advertisements appear at the back of volume III. Original binding is grayish-blue paper boards with a yellowish-grey….
- Devereux: A Tale — 1829 · Henry ColburnFirst edition (Sadleir 398), three volumes, collating viii,299; [2],310,[2] advertisement leaf; [2],344, with an advertisement leaf and an errata slip present in each volume as specified by Sadleir. No half-titles were issued. Recorded contemporary bindings include green half calf with gilt-ruled spines, double morocco labels, and marbled sides. The novel was published anonymously, identified on the title page….
- Eugene Aram: A Tale — 1832 · Henry Colburn and Richard BentleyFirst edition (Sadleir 404), three volumes 12mo, collating xxi,[1],299,[1]; [4],308; [4],306,[2]. Two pages of advertisements dated 1 January 1832 are bound in at the back of volume III. Original binding is drab paper-covered boards with a printed paper spine label -- not cloth, as sometimes misdescribed. The novel is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott and was published anonymously, identified on the title page only…. Bulwer-Lytton later revised the novel for a subsequent edition, recasting Aram's own confession so that he is an accomplice to Daniel Clarke's murder rather than its perpetrator, and adding a new preface defending the change; that altered confession, not the 1832 first edition's original ending, underlies most later reprints.
- The Last Days of Pompeii — 1834 · Richard BentleyFirst edition (Sadleir 414, Wolff 940), three volumes, published by Richard Bentley in 1834. Half-titles appear only in volumes II and III, with none issued for volume I; a set with a half-title present in volume I would not conform to the recorded first-edition pattern. Recorded first-edition bindings vary between copies in half cloth over boards with printed paper spine labels and copies in full cloth with….
- The Caxtons: A Family Picture — 1849 · William Blackwood and SonsFirst edition in book form (Sadleir 392, Wolff 924), three volumes octavo, collating [4],iii,[1],viii,327,[1]; [4],346; [4],308,32pp. A 32-page publisher's catalogue is bound in at the back of volume III as part of this collation. Original binding is chocolate-brown ribbed cloth, blocked in blind on the covers and lettered in gilt on the spine, with rough-trimmed fore and bottom edges and pale yellow endpapers. The novel was serialized anonymously in Blackwood's Magazine from April 1848 to October 1849 before its first appearance in book form, in three volumes, later in 1849; the magazine serialization therefore precedes the three-volume first edition.
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