Lucretia

Edward Bulwer Lytton's Lucretia is a dark Victorian novel of crime, conscience, and inherited corruption, where family conflict and early upbringing shape lives toward tragedy. Framed as a moral investigation into greed, ambition, and the hidden power of money, it draws on real criminal cases to show how cultivated minds can become instruments of extraordinary evil. The story moves between psychological suspense and historical drama, insisting that even ordinary faults can grow into catastrophe. Its opening scenes range from the Reign of Terror, where a cold father leads his son to witness an execution that becomes an act of private vengeance, to the elegant yet uneasy world of English country houses and London clubs. Sir Miles St. John represents fading aristocratic dignity, while figures like the exhausted rake Mr. Vernon and the politically adaptable émigré Olivier Dalibard embody the restless, compromised modern age. Alongside them, young Percival St. John enters society with boyish grace, while street figures like Beck offer comic commentary on rights and social change. Across every setting, the novel probes secrecy, betrayal, class tension, and the making of moral ruin. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.