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Paul Clifford

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 15 ratings · 5 reviews

Paul Clifford tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman.

Paul Clifford was written by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), an English politician, poet, playwright, and successful novelist. In a career spanning more than forty years he wrote a stream of novels which were read widely in the English-speaking w...more

Paperback, 436 pages

Published February 1st 2004 by Wildside Press (first published 1830)

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Oct 12, 2011 CheshRCat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: period-gothic, victorian

Seriously--who wrote the summary up there, and when was it written? It makes this book sound like some deep, profound, existential, bore-the-pants-off-all-and-sundry analysis of Victorian society and crime. Um, no. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Or at the top of your web browser.

Paul Clifford is a melodramatic and fast-moving romp about a young fellow (named, ahem, Paul Clifford) who leads a double life: man-about-town by day, masked highwayman called Captain Lovett by night. He...more Seriously--who wrote the summary up there, and when was it written? It makes this book sound like some deep, profound, existential, bore-the-pants-off-all-and-sundry analysis of Victorian society and crime. Um, no. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Or at the top of your web browser.

Paul Clifford is a melodramatic and fast-moving romp about a young fellow (named, ahem, Paul Clifford) who leads a double life: man-about-town by day, masked highwayman called Captain Lovett by night. He and his colourful gang of miscreants ride about the country, holding up carriages and having a grand old time, until one day he falls madly in love with a typical gothic heroine--beautiful, virtuous, etc--and begins to question his life as an outlaw.

This was by no means a GOOD book. I mean--cheesy--poorly written--one-dimensional characters--you know. The works. But it was an awful lot of fun. Kind of a guilty pleasure book, only you can use it to pass yourself off as an intellectual because it was written almost two hundred years ago. And it's by no means a difficult read. Dickens is technically the better writer, but reading this is one heck of a lot easier than trawling through most of his works. And it's unintentionally hilarious in many places--one line that killed me was, if I recall correctly, "In his hand he grasped the mock trident known to many gastronomers by the monosyllable 'fork' ". And no, I don't think he was trying to be ironic.

Paul Clifford was hugely popular in it's heyday. It's author, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, was just as popular with Victorians as Dickens was. So why hasn't he survived the years? Well, partially because, as I've said, he isn't quite as good. (But more enjoyable.) The other reason is that there is, I will admit, a fair amount of political chitchat which makes no sense to us today. One character's always going on about how he's a confirmed Whig, and yay for whigs, and boo on tories, blah blah blah. But, even if you have no idea of nineteenth-century politics--which most people don't--it by no means gets in the way of plot.

This book is funny. It's romantic. It's filled with drama. It contains the original line, "It was a dark and stormy night."

And it needs to be made into a movie starring Johnny Depp as soon as possible.

*UPDATE: Ok, They changed the summary up at the top. Now it kind of makes sense. But I'm too lazy to alter the first paragraph of my review.*(less)

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Mar 08, 2013 Tristram rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-english-literature

Never Judge a Book by Its First Sentence

Although I thoroughly enjoy reading English literature of the 18th and 19th centuries – I am afraid I may even go so far as to say that one condition an author must fulfil in order to find real favour with me is simply … being dead –, I have never had a look at the works of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. This is hardly surprising because I have always considered him to be a paragon of purple prose – and why? Simply because of the infamous sentence – “It was a dark...more Never Judge a Book by Its First Sentence

Although I thoroughly enjoy reading English literature of the 18th and 19th centuries – I am afraid I may even go so far as to say that one condition an author must fulfil in order to find real favour with me is simply … being dead –, I have never had a look at the works of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. This is hardly surprising because I have always considered him to be a paragon of purple prose – and why? Simply because of the infamous sentence – “It was a dark and stormy night” – with which he started his novel “Paul Clifford”.

For some reason or other, however, I recently started having a go at this very book, and I was quite amazed at how much I enjoyed it. “Paul Clifford” tells the story of a young man, the eponymous hero, born in obscure circumstances and brought up by the landlady of an equally obscure alehouse. After being punished for a crime that he did not commit, he is finally lured into the company of highwaymen and confidence tricksters and decides to take up life as an outlaw. One day, however, he makes the acquaintance of a charming young girl, Lucy Brandon, the niece of a very ambitious and embittered lawyer, and Cupid takes over, throwing him into an ill-fated passion for the girl. How can he possibly hope to be united in marriage to a maiden that is apparently socially unattainable to him, a reckless young man, whose neck is constantly threatened by Jack Ketch? Apart from that, Lucy’s scheming uncle is determined to marry her off to Lord Mauleverer, a jaded aristocrat, whose friendship is useful to Brandon in the pursuit of his social ambitions.

What seems to be a wild and romantic penny-dreadful really is one, but there is quite more to it. I was quite surprised at Bulwer-Lytton’s witty and elegant style, his capacity for exuberant wordplay and his brilliant humour. When, for instance, one of the characters complains of having been robbed of his watch, he receives the witty answer: Your watch has gone? Well, watches are made to go.

Whereas a lot of the characters in Bulwer-Lytton are either caricatures or bloodless types, the author actually creates an interesting hero, because for all his noble qualities, there is a tinge of contempt for mankind in Paul that makes his descent into crime credible. On the other hand, even Bulwer-Lytton’s crooks have their redeeming qualities, as in the case of Lord Mauleverer, who is much more lifelike than any sinister suitor you may find in Dickens. Lytton’s master-piece, however, is the disillusioned lawyer Brandon, whose motives become more and more understandable, though not excusable, in the course of the novel. His view on life is quite depressing, and he expresses it to his niece, whom he really loves, in a very frank way, as for example here: “Posterity! Can you believe that a man who knows what life is, cares for the penny whistles of grown children after his death? […] Posterity is but the same perpetuity of fools and rascals; and even were justice desirable at their hands, they could n o t deal it. [...] The word has gulled men enough without m y adding to the number. I, who loathe the living, can scarcely venerate the unborn. Lucy, believe me, that no man can mix largely with men in political life, and not despise everything that in youth he adored! Age leaves us only one feeling – contempt!” For all the staginess of monologues like these, they fulfill their purpose, adding another dimension to what would usually be another melodramatic scoundrel.

Quite like the inimitable Dickens, Lytton also seems to pursue social aims, indicting the inhumane criminal law of his time, as in Paul’s furious final speech in court: “The laws themselves caused me to break the laws: first, by implanting within me the goading sense of injustice; secondly by submitting me to the corruption of example. […] And it now destroys me, as it has destroyed thousands, for being what it made me!”

If you are not too averse to a certain pathos in tone and to melodrama, you might actually enjoy “Paul Clifford” a lot. After the amusing time I had with this novel, I will certainly give some other of Lytton’s works a try. The only thing I heartily disliked was the author’s apparent prejudice against the Scottish, which is not only mirrored in the caricature one of the characters supplies but also in various scathing remarks about the nation that has come up with some of the finest whiskies and poets in the world.
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Jun 29, 2012 Tori rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, ebook

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness

*sighs* <3 That has to be one of the best lines I have ever read. So beautiful, so poetic, holding passion and mystery and darkness. I LOVE that line.

Unfortunately, this i...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Elise marked it as to-read

Shelves: fiction

Have to read the dark-and-stormy-night book.

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Nov 29, 2008 Ken rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book begins with the immortal words 'It was a dark and stormy night'
The story is a fascinating portrait of redemption, with many quaint and amusing asides.

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Shelves: library

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About Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC, was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. Lord Lytton was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and the infamous incipit "It was a dark and stormy night."

He was the youngest son of General William Ear...more

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