Influences

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton [25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873]

"True, This!

— Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Behold

The arch-enchanters wand!

— itself a nothing! —

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless!

— Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it!"

-from his 1839 play Richlieu; The Conspiracy.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

-from his 1830 novel Paul Clifford