The son, Benjamin, was
baptized into the Church of England at the age of thirteen,
educated among his father's books and in private schools, and at
seventeen articled to a firm of London solicitors. Instead of
practicing law the young clerk practiced authorship so cleverly
as to make a sensation in his twenty-first year with a novel
"Vivian Grey" (1826), the first of eleven ("Young Duke," 1831;
"Contarini Fleming," 1832; "Alroy," 1833; "Henrietta Temple,"
1836; "Venetia," 1837; "Coningsby," 1844; "Sybil," 1845;
"Tancred," 1847; "Lothair," 1870; "Endymion," 1880), besides
several long poems, burlesques, and political pamphlets, and "The
Life of Lord George Bentinck." "Vivian Grey" was very smartly
done, and fashionable London was captivated by its clever satire
and witty dialogue. On the profits of his earlier books he
traveled extensively in Europe and the Levant, where his Oriental
imagination was strongly stimulated. Before he was thirty he had
won his way into the most exclusive circles of London society,
the vogue of his novels and the brilliancy of his conversational
powers commending him to the "smart set" of the metropolis. His
determination "to be somebody" in spite of the disadvantages of
blood, birth, and lack of money led him to ridiculous
affectations--yet, however ridiculed at the time, they served his
turn, and brought him the notice that he craved.
Pages:
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221