Welcome back to All Things Eerie.  You may not recognize the name of tonight’s author--Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton--but you have surely heard some of the more famous ideas from his writings.

Bulwer-Lytton's works were well known in his time. He coined famous phrases like "pursuit of the almighty dollar,” "the pen is mightier than the sword,” "the great unwashed,” and the opening phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night." The sardonic Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, held annually since 1982, claims to seek the "opening sentence of the worst of all possible novels.”

Bulwer-Lytton's literary career began in 1820 with the publication of a book of poems and spanned much of the 19th century. He wrote in a variety of genres, including historical fiction, mystery, romance, the occult, and science fiction. He financed his extravagant way of life with a varied and prolific literary output, sometimes publishing anonymously.

Among Bulwer-Lytton's lesser-known contributions to literature was that he convinced Charles Dickens to revise the ending of Great Expectations to make it more palatable to the reading public, as in the original version of the novel, Pip and Estella do not get together.

Bulwer-Lytton’s own private life was fraught with drama.  In August 1827, he married Rosina Doyle Wheeler, a noted Irish beauty, but against the wishes of his mother, who withdrew his allowance, forcing him to work for a living. They had two children, Emily Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton and (Edward) Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, who became Governor-General and Viceroy of British India (1876–1880). His writing and political work strained their marriage and his infidelity embittered Rosina.  In 1833, they separated acrimoniously, and in 1836 the separation became legal. Three years later, Rosina published a near-libelous fiction satirizing her husband's alleged hypocrisy.

In June 1858, when her husband was standing as parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire, she denounced him publicly. He retaliated by threatening her publishers, withholding her allowance, and denying her access to their children. Finally, he had her committed to a mental asylum, but she was released a few weeks later after a public outcry. This she chronicled in a memoir, A Blighted Life (1880). She continued attacking her husband's character for several years thereafter.

Bulwer-Lytton had long suffered from a disease of the ear, and for the last two or three years of his life lived in Torquay nursing his health. After an operation to cure deafness, an abscess formed in the ear and burst; he endured intense pain for a week and died at 2 am on 18 January 1873, just short of his 70th birthday. The cause of death was unclear but it was thought the infection had affected his brain and caused a fit. Rosina outlived him by nine years. Against his wishes, Bulwer-Lytton was honored with a burial in Westminster Abbey. His unfinished history Athens: Its Rise and Fall was published posthumously.

Tonight’s story takes us to a house in London that is reputedly haunted. We hope you’ll enjoy the adventure it presents.

And now, turn down the lights and join us for “The Haunted and the Haunters” by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton….