We have
heard it alleged, with some evidence, that the prominence given to
intellectual power in Bulwer's romances had proved a main stimulus to
mental culture in thousands of young men in England and America. The
effect on manners cannot be less sensible, and we can easily believe
that the behavior of the ball room, and of the hotel has not failed
to draw some addition of dignity and grace from the fair ideals, with
which the imagination of a novelist has filled the heads of the most
imitative class.
We are not very well versed in these books, yet we have read
Mr. Bulwer enough to see that the story is rapid and interesting; he
has really seen London society, and does not draw ignorant
caricatures. He is not a genius, but his novels are marked with
great energy, and with a courage of experiment which in each instance
had its degree of success. The story of Zanoni was one of those
world-fables which is so agreeable to the human imagination, that it
is found in some form in the language of every country, and is always
reappearing in literature. Many of the details of this novel
preserve a poetic truth.
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