Rienzi, Last of the Roman Tribunes

by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, British Literature, Historical

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1835

About the author

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC, was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. Lord Lytton was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and the infamous incipit "It was a dark and stormy night."

He was the youngest son of General William Earle Bulwer of Heydon Hall and Wood Dalling, Norfolk and Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, daughter of Richard Warburton Lytton of Knebworth, Hertfordshire. He had two brothers, William Earle Lytton Bulwer (1799–1877) and Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer.

Lord Lytton's original surname was Bulwer, the names 'Earle' and 'Lytton' were middle names. On 20 February 1844 he assumed the name and arms of Lytton by royal licence and his surname then became 'Bulwer-Lytton'. His widowed mother had done the same in 1811. His brothers were always simply surnamed 'Bulwer'.

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book. Do not know how the Opera compares with it but it is unlikely that it can come close to it.
The story starts with two brothers getting into some brawl, the younger one gets killed by some members of the ruling families of Rome.
The other goes into politics and eventually becomes the last tribune. A man from the people. According to Lytton a true man and a political genius. And wishing away any doubts I wholeheartedly believe him. (Have to read it up in Gibbon.) A little bit on the vain glory side.
He fights against the families, gets rid of street robbery and other misery. People love him. People betray him. Great scenes, where Lytton describes how the mob changes mind.
He gets the beautiful lady. Sister is in love with one of family members. The good guy.
Walter de Montreal is the Nemesis, one of the best characters I ever encountered in fiction. A mean guy but not your typical bad guy.
Rienzi is driven away from Rome ends up in prison in Avignon, returns because of a clever scheme by his wife who convinces the grey eminence that only Rienzi can get the Pope back to Rome.
In the end, Rienzi and the lovely lady get killed. Traitor is the young boy whom they had practically adopted but who turns up to be the son of Montreal.
Where is Walter Ulrich when you need him. I want this to be the next four-part TV movie.
Great first line, great dedication.
9/10

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the online text. A spectacular story of one of the heroes of the Italian Renaissance. B-L is very flowery, wordy and melodramatic--typical Victorian overwrought novel. Interesting, enjoyable novel of 14th century Italian Renaissance taking place mainly in Rome. It is set against the background of the Guelph [Orsini family]/Ghibelline [Colonna family] conflict. Adventure follows the writing conventions of its day, which are turgid to modern people, but the story is memorable. Rienzi's rise/fall/rise/fall is detailed, ending with Rome in flames. Interwoven are two love stories: Rienzi and Nina, the lady who becomes his wife; also Rienzi's sister, Irene, and a young nobleman, Adrian di Castello. The villain gets his comeuppance. I can see why B-L was popular in his day and why Wagner chose this as a subject for his first successful opera, still performed today occasionally, albeit excerpted or truncated.

Still keeping B-L's basic style, about half the text could have been excised for modern readers. I hope someone will do this someday, giving this novel a chance at more exposure. The long boring digressions explaining history or quoting from earlier writers could have been done away with, or at least abbreviated. B-L also included an interesting essay on the historical Cola di Rienzi, who was considered in the 19th century as a nationalist figure during the Risorgimento.

Recommended as a Victorian period piece about a fascinating period of history.

[Arlomisty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book... a story that should be made into a movie if you ask my opinion.

[William H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling Reading!

I began reading this book primarily to better understand the Wagnerian opera “Rienzi.” However, the opera deals only with a small portion of this superb work of early 19th century British factionalized biography. I learned a great deal about Rome in the 14th century when the papacy was based in Avignon. I strongly recommend this book both to the opera enthusiast and amateur medieval historian.

[Saettare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly convoluted romantic retelling of a most fascinating period in medieval Roman history. Just as interesting as a document of its own time as it is an interpretation of the history it represents. Bring it to life!

[Tristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy published in 1903. Fascinating tale written in a Shakespearian style.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are supposed to make fun of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The contest named for him is a competition to write "the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels," harking back to his "dark and stormy night" sentence. (Look it up. It's not that bad. In fact, I want to read that book.) Anyway, that's kinda nonsense. Yes, he writes like a well-educated 19th Century male novelist. That's what he was. High diction, occasionally archaic in tone. Long-ish sentences. A sometimes-intrusive narrator who directly addresses the reader. That does not set him apart from his contemporaries.

Give him a chance--that's my point.

This is a very entertaining adventure novel in the high romantic tradition. Set in Rome in the 14th Century, when the nobles were no better than robber barons, when the people had no allies and Rome was only half populated, a brilliant commoner named Cola de Rienzi rose to prominence and tried to restore some of the glory of the ancient city. (Think Alexander Hamilton, except he was liked by almost everyone.) In real life, recounted here in a fictionalized account, he leveraged the power of the people to evict the nobles and rule for a time as Tribune, bringing justice to the oppressed citizens, never forgetting he was himself a commoner. Later chased from the city by the resurgent nobles and their German mercenaries, and for a time imprisoned by the pope in Avignon, Rienzi rose again years later to retake the city (this time with the pope's support). But Rome looked a lot like other cities waking up from tyranny (Paris in the 1790's, Moscow and Russia in the 1990's), and the route to justice, fairness, opportunity, and safety was still a tough one.

Like other novels of the sort, we have true love, duels, intrigue, children wanting to discover their true parents, and honorable enemies (as well as dishonorable ones). Castles and palaces. Haughty noblewomen. All that stuff. But there's more! The plague hits Rome in the middle of the story; Petrarch is everywhere present and discussed, though never actually met; and some hippy type young people who look a lot like Boccaccio's ten story-tellers from the Decameron are revealed to be hedonistic and unlikable. In the midst of all this, the idealistic but highly intelligent Rienzi is trying to find the right way to lead a fractious people to a better society, scraping together whatever authority and support he can find. His wife, his sister, and his best friend work with him, but almost no one else, and yet he achieves amazing things. For a little while.

It's a great story.

It's the writer's language that put him on the "so bad it's just bad" list, and discourages people from reading him today, but here's a purely random page of his prose for you to judge:

As the traveller neared the city the scene became less solitary, yet more dread. There might be seen carts and litters, thick awnings wrapped closely round them, containing those who sought safety in fight, forgetful that the Plague was everywhere! And while these gloomy vehicles, conducted by horses, gaunt shadowy skeletons, crawling heavily along, passed by, like hearses of the dead, sometimes a cry burst the silence in which they moved, and the traveller's steed started aside, as some wretch, on whom the disease had broke forth, was dropped from the vehicle by the selfish inhumanity of his comrades, and left to perish by the way. Hard by the gate a wagon paused, and a man with a mask threw out its contents in a green, slimy ditch that bordered the road. These were garments and robes of all kind and value; the broidered mantle of the gallant, the hood and veil of my lady, and the rags of the peasant. While glancing at the labor of the masker, the cavalier beheld a herd of swine, gaunt and half-famished, run to the spot in hopes of food, and the traveller shuddered to think what food they might have anticipated!

I like it.

Rienzi is an admirable character, but so is his greatest enemy, the mercenary Montreal. They are sometimes friends, or at least friendly, and their interaction makes the story. But the other amazing aspect of this novel is the setting and how much the novel fills in (for me, anyway) the history of Rome between empire and modern times. It helps me see what life looked like there in those times, who it was who kept the lights on, so to speak, after it dwindled to a backwater. The author speaks with some authority on the topic and includes notes throughout, so even if his scholarship turns out to be out of date, it isn't made up.

And the history of Rienzi is well worth knowing. I'd never even heard of him before.

Recommended

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rienzi traces the career of the historical 'Rienzi', a great tribune of the people, who established a Republic in Rome in the 14th century. He was excommunicated, returned from exile, and was assassinated. There are also interesting side lights on life and manners of the time.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bulwer-Lytton is primarily made fun of for his overwrought style and prose, and there are trappings of those criticisms here that I noticed, but I found it okay - as well as the fact that it fit the setting of the novel presumably much better than his other works.

The book is essentially historical fiction of the rise and fall of Cola di Rienzo, from the time of his young adulthood all the way to the moment of his death. It very strictly paints Rienzi in a positive light to the point where the book is essentially a paean to him - he becomes a representative of everything austere, noble, strong and rational of the Roman republic, contrasted frequently and deeply with the oppression and vice of present-day (mid-14th century) baronies that now make up Italy in the early Renaissance period.

Much of the novel involves Rienzi's rise to power, his political machinations to unseat the barons, mixed with sub-plots involving other characters, primarily those of Adriano, a patrician who shares Rienzi's sympathy with the common people, and his relationship with Rienzi's sister. There's also Walter de Montreal, rogue knight from the Holy Roman Empire and mercenary captain with ambitions of his own that conflict with Rienzi's.

These factors all come together ultimately to form a very romantic and idealised story - Rienzi, a commoner, is driven to revenge with the flippant murder of his brother by a patrician from the Orsini. He also seeks to redeem Rome from its fallen state and elevate the people, which he does in the first act of the book by securing the merchants with him and forming a militia. He manages to drive the patricians out and forms an independent state of Rome, with public political offices and himself as 'tribune' rather than consul. During this, Walter develops his own plans to take Rome and instate a proper aristocratic and a authoritarian regime. These are the two main philosophies that contrast throughout the book, though they're never truly allowed to conflict, as from the second act onward Rienzi's downfall occurs partly through his own egoism, but primarily through unfortunate happenstance, which seems to mostly be in favor of preserving Rienzi's ultimately pure goals, even as the ousted patricians besiege Rome and succeed in turning the people - represented as permanently fickle - against him, who kill him during a final speech to them.

Overall, it was fun, but as dramatic as you would expect from the author, and takes liberties in extremely wide and sweeping statements that come across in the modern day as alternatively saccharine and strange, like his constant assertions of Italians as wily, swarthy and deceitful to the point that they start to look like an entirely separate species by the end of the book. I'd say it probably wasn't worth the elevated page count, and the characters are mostly vehicles for ideas rather than interesting by themselves, especially the women who are purely passive, and with the exception of Walter, who definitely outshines the protagonist.