Pelham — Volume 04
1828
The fourth volume of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's witty chronicle of London society finds Henry Pelham returned to the city with eyes newly opened to its games and hypocrisies. What once seemed merely fashionable now carries weight. The tailors who dress him, the drawing rooms where he parses every glance and aside, the political ambitions whispering through clubs and salons - all of it now appears both seductive and slightly absurd. Pelham moves through encounters with Lady Roseville and her circle, where the charming but haunted Reginald Glanville proves that even the most polished exteriors can conceal genuine anguish. This is social comedy with teeth: Bulwer-Lytton dissects the rituals of the beau monde while clearly delighting in them, creating a protagonist who is simultaneously a dandy and a philosopher, frivolous yet capable of genuine feeling. The novel helped establish the "silver fork" school of fiction - literature that took society's surfaces seriously as both art and artifact. For readers who enjoy the dandified ironies of Thackeray or the psychological portraits of Henry James, Pelham offers an earlier, equally sharp examination of how people perform themselves for each other.
