Where Philip Never Gives Up on His Family Name

The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton: Night and Morning by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[I have a soft spot for this writer, whose famous opening sentence in another novel, "It was a dark and stormy night," became the origin of a mocking contest for bad opening lines. He definitely writes with a high level of diction and his characters sometimes speak in a dramatic, even melodramatic, way. But he's not too different in style from much of Dickens or Scott or the like. And I enjoy his stories.]

My fondness for the author would have me give this book a 4, but my better judgment says it's not that fun. And yet, the 3 I gave it is a bit low. It is, however, how I think a fan of 19th century English fiction would feel about it. In my heart, it's a 3.5. By that I mean that it lacks something in big parts, but it's a good novel, and though it wasn't fun in every section, it was enjoyable overall.

Slicing most of the first 20% or so would improve it a lot. The main characters are not born yet; it's all setup. A wealthy man, an heir, marries against his family's wishes, but keeps it a secret. His two sons are raised with a mostly absent father, waiting for him to inherit, at which time he will produce the records of his marriage, putting to rest all the rumors of a kept woman and two bastards, making all of them legitimate. The bad news: everyone who knows about their real marriage, one way or another, is gone. Most have died. A couple were sent far away, to protect his secret so that his father wouldn't disinherit him. But then, before he produces the necessary records, he also dies in a fall from a horse.

His brother gets everything, and our young MC gets chased away. Nobody believes that his mother and father were married. Now his mother dies too. The number of deaths in the first part of the book is a real downer.

Much of the rest is about Philip, the true heir, wandering England and France, hanging around sketchy people, almost getting himself into a lot of trouble, though he never does anything illegal himself. He has several bad jobs, gets accused of crimes he didn't commit, and loses everything he ever had. His little brother Sidney gets taken in by a man who once loved his mother, and the brothers lose track of each other completely.

The section in France, where he meets up with an old scammer friend of his who is running a wedding bureau filled with eccentric characters, is odd and funny. It reads so much like Dickens that I bet it would fool a few people. But events--people from their past--force him and his sketchy friends on, and they mostly survive by gambling wins in cities around the continent.

Things work out. Secrets are revealed. Pretty girls find husbands. Every time he nearly screws up, Philip catches himself and does the right thing. His mother's reputation is restored. His brother is found.

Probably the best character in the novel is Fanny, a young girl who seems a little crazy, a little slow, but thrives despite it. She's an orphan who everyone calls the idiot, but she's too hard-working and too good a person for them to mistreat her. And by the end of the novel, she matures, learns a lot of things, reads a bunch, focuses her mind, and becomes quite a lady, even if she is still a tiny bit off. I love that she's not just the typical bright, clear-headed love interest; she's like a real person, one who is damaged and hard to understand, who is fighting for good mental health, but is impressive and admirable and significant despite her challenges. I'm gonna think about her for awhile.

I doubt many people will pick up this book, and I bet most of those who do will be put off by the early chapters. Too bad. I'd like to talk to someone about it someday.

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