Produced by David Widger
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
"The Parisians" and "Kenelm Chillingly" were begun about the same time,and had their common origin in the same central idea. That idea firstfound fantastic expression in "The Coming Race;" and the three books,taken together, constitute a special group, distinctly apart from all theother works of their author.
The satire of his earlier novels is a protest against false socialrespectabilities; the humour of his later ones is a protest against thedisrespect of social realities. By the first he sought to promote socialsincerity and the free play of personal character; by the last, toencourage mutual charity and sympathy amongst all classes, on whoseinterrelation depends the character of society itself. But in thesethree books, his latest fictions, the moral purpose is more definite andexclusive. Each of them is an expostulation against what seemed to himthe perilous popularity of certain social and political theories, or awarning against the influence of certain intellectual tendencies uponindividual character and national life. This purpose, however, thoughcommon to the three fictions, is worked out in each of them by adifferent method. "The Coming Race" is a work of pure fancy, and thesatire of it is vague and sportive. The outlines of a definite purposeare more distinctly drawn in "Chillingly,"—a romance which has thesource of its effect in a highly wrought imagination. The humour andpathos of "Chillingly" are of a kind incompatible with the design of "TheParisians," which is a work of dramatized observation. "Chillingly" is aromance; "The Parisians" is a novel. The subject of "Chillingly" ispsychological; that of "The Parisians" is social. The author's objectin "Chillingly" being to illustrate the effects of "modern ideas" uponan individual character, he has confined his narrative to the biographyof that one character; hence the simplicity of plot and small number ofdramatis personae, whereby the work gains in height and depth what itloses in breadth of surface. "The Parisians," on the contrary, isdesigned to illustrate the effect of "modern ideas" upon a wholecommunity. This novel is therefore panoramic in the profusion andvariety of figures presented by it to the reader's imagination. Noexclusive prominence is vouchsafed to any of these figures. All of themare drawn and coloured with an equal care, but by means of the bold,broad touches necessary for their effective presentation on a canvas solarge and so crowded. Such figures are, indeed, but the componentfeatures of one great form, and their actions only so many modes of onecollective impersonal character,—that of the Parisian Society ofImperial and Democratic France; a character everywhere present and busythroughout the story, of which it is the real hero or heroine. Thissociety was doubtless selected for characteristic illustration as beingthe most advanced in the progress of "modern ideas." Thus, for acomplete perception of its writer's fundamental purpose, "The Parisians"should be read in connection with "Chillingly," and these two books inconnection with "The Coming Race." It will then be perceived thatthrough the medium of alternate fancy, sentiment, and observation,assisted by humour and passion, these three books (in all other respectsso different from each other) complete the presentation of the samepurpose under different aspects, and thereby constitute a group offictions which claims a separate place of its own in any thoughtfulclassification of their author's works.
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