Little, Brown and Company, Boston, copyright 1897 and 1898, illustrated — and dedicated “TO JOHN GIBSON, R.A., SCULPTOR”. The dedication is the interesting part of the front matter: a Rosicrucian novel offered to a neoclassical sculptor then working in Rome, which places the book in the Victorian traffic between occultism and the arts rather than in a purely literary lineage.
Zanoni — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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page 1
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ZANONI
—“—
BY EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON [Lorp Lyrtron]
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SSS
SS
EDWARD-BU LW ER LORD -LYTTO N
ZANONI
BY
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON [LORD LYTTON]
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON
LittLe, Brown, AND CoMPANY
Copyright, 1898, 1897,
By Litre, Brown, anp Company
p. 733
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
JOHN GIBSON, RB.A.,
SCULPTOR.
In looking round the wide and luminous circle of our great living Englishmen, to select one to whom I might fitly dedicate this work, — one who, in his life as in his genius, might illustrate the principle I have sought to convey; elevated by the ideal which he exalts, and serenely dwelling in a glorious existence with the images born of his imagination, — in looking round for some such man, my thoughts rested upon you. Afar from our turbulent cabals; from the ignoble jealousy and the sordid strife which degrade and acerbate the ambition of Genius, —in your Roman Home, you have lived amidst all that is loveliest and least perishable in the past, and contributed with the noblest aims, and in the purest spirit, to the mighty heirlooms of the future. Your youth has been devoted to toil, that your manhood may be consecrated to fame: a fame unsullied by one desire of gold. You have escaped the two worst perils that beset the artist in our time and land, —the debasing tendencies of commerce, and the angry rivalries of competition. You have not wrought your marble for the market, —you have not been tempted, by the praises which our vicious criticism has showered upon exaggeration and distortion, to lower vi DEDICATORY EPISTLE.
your taste to the level of the hour; you have lived, and you have labored, as if you had no rivals but in the dead, — no purchasers, save in judges of what is best. In the divine priesthood of the beautiful, you have sought aly to increase her worshippers and enrich her temples. The pupil of Canova, you have imherited his excellenees while you have shunned his ertors, — yours his delicacy, not his affectation.
Your heart resembles him even more than your genius: you have the same noble enthasiasm for your sublime profession; the same lefty freedom from envy, and the spirit that depreciates; the same generous desire not to war with but to serve artists im your art; ailing, strengthening, advising, elevating the timidity of inexperience, and the vague aspirations of youth.
Br the intuition of a kindred mind, you hare equalled the learning of Winckelman, and the plastic poetry of Goethe, in the intimate comprehension of the antique Each work of yours, nightly studied, is in itself a eriticion, illustrating the sublime serets of the Grecian Ar, which, without the servility of plagiarism, yor hare contributed to revive amongst us; im you we beheld its three great and long-undetected Principles, — simplicity,
page 1
SRT = Yes oS SS es eae. Faire tap rset er if
Si aasa
Fie bos adn tanidn me. oon ate 6 pla an i ete sos Nene provera sass seiterssre eee fe ase ae, ee =, ira
Rea SA ENT
RARY:
ELIB
"RE
Fr
UNTY
“CO ied ae ee
\\
- | ee) ae “<= iu ae ah’. ee i.
By
as | ak \ a |
ZANONI
—“—
BY EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON [Lorp Lyrtron]
val
AK | pp
SSS
SS
EDWARD-BU LW ER LORD -LYTTO N
ZANONI
BY
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON [LORD LYTTON]
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON
LittLe, Brown, AND CoMPANY
Copyright, 1898, 1897,
By Litre, Brown, anp Company
p. 733
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
JOHN GIBSON, RB.A.,
SCULPTOR.
In looking round the wide and luminous circle of our great living Englishmen, to select one to whom I might fitly dedicate this work, — one who, in his life as in his genius, might illustrate the principle I have sought to convey; elevated by the ideal which he exalts, and serenely dwelling in a glorious existence with the images born of his imagination, — in looking round for some such man, my thoughts rested upon you. Afar from our turbulent cabals; from the ignoble jealousy and the sordid strife which degrade and acerbate the ambition of Genius, —in your Roman Home, you have lived amidst all that is loveliest and least perishable in the past, and contributed with the noblest aims, and in the purest spirit, to the mighty heirlooms of the future. Your youth has been devoted to toil, that your manhood may be consecrated to fame: a fame unsullied by one desire of gold. You have escaped the two worst perils that beset the artist in our time and land, —the debasing tendencies of commerce, and the angry rivalries of competition. You have not wrought your marble for the market, —you have not been tempted, by the praises which our vicious criticism has showered upon exaggeration and distortion, to lower vi DEDICATORY EPISTLE.
your taste to the level of the hour; you have lived, and you have labored, as if you had no rivals but in the dead, — no purchasers, save in judges of what is best. In the divine priesthood of the beautiful, you have sought aly to increase her worshippers and enrich her temples. The pupil of Canova, you have imherited his excellenees while you have shunned his ertors, — yours his delicacy, not his affectation.
Your heart resembles him even more than your genius: you have the same noble enthasiasm for your sublime profession; the same lefty freedom from envy, and the spirit that depreciates; the same generous desire not to war with but to serve artists im your art; ailing, strengthening, advising, elevating the timidity of inexperience, and the vague aspirations of youth.
Br the intuition of a kindred mind, you hare equalled the learning of Winckelman, and the plastic poetry of Goethe, in the intimate comprehension of the antique Each work of yours, nightly studied, is in itself a eriticion, illustrating the sublime serets of the Grecian Ar, which, without the servility of plagiarism, yor hare contributed to revive amongst us; im you we beheld its three great and long-undetected Principles, — simplicity,