Peter C. Dawson Publishing is pleased to present this quality hardcover reprint of Edward Bulwer Lytton's 1862 novel, A Strange Story (ISBN: 9780984491933), preserved in its entirety (Vol. I and II), reprinted from the 1862 Sampson Low, Son, & Co. (47 Ludgate Hill, London) edition. (This is not a photocopy, scanned facsimile, nor OCR copy.) Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) is "chiefly remembered ... as a prolific novelist" whose books "remain immensely readable" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-George-Earle-Bulwer-Lytton-1st-Baron-Lytton). He wrote novels "skillfully blending metaphysics with his autobiographical observations about contemporary high society" (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bulwer/bio.html). A Strange Story was first published in complete form, in two volumes, anonymously in 1862 by Sampson Low, Son, & Co., London. Prior to this, "The (anonymous) novel A Strange Story ... [ran] weekly in Dickens's journal All the Year Round from 10 August, 1861, to 8 March, 1862" (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bulwer/chron.html). It has been described as " 'a novel based upon a few tinges of reality' ", where the reader may find a "few grains of truth" amongst "the mystery, suspense, and romance portions [that] were inserted to give dramatic embellishments which made him a successful writer with story-lines that enthralled his readers and became best-sellers" (Marples 2014, "Sir Bulwer-Lytton: A Masonic Rosicrucian who still inspires our world today" http://masonic.benemerito.net/msricf/papers/marples/marples-Sir.Bulwer.Lytton.pdf). "Sir E. Bulwer Lytton is not only a novelist of the first rank; he has achieved remarkable success as a dramatist and as a politician. He held office under Lord Derby, and is one of the most distinguished orators in Parliament. His career shows that even wealth and high birth do not always stifle genius" (Harper's Weekly, August 10, 1861, Vol. V., No. 241). Charles Dickens wrote Bulwer Lytton in a December 18, 1861 letter: "And I say, Most masterly and most admirable! ... There cannot be a doubt of the beauty, power, and artistic excellence of the whole" novel.
