Edward Bulwer-Lytton Books in Order (Updated September 8, 2026)

Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English novelist, playwright, poet, politician, and essayist whose fiction ranged from crime and society novels to historical romance, Gothic fiction, occult fantasy, and early speculative fiction. He is now especially associated with The Last Days of Pompeii, Paul Clifford, Zanoni, A Strange Story, and The Coming Race.

Most Bulwer-Lytton novels are standalone, but there are two important exceptions. Alice, or The Mysteries is a direct sequel to Ernest Maltravers, while The Caxtons, My Novel, and What Will He Do with It? belong to the broader Caxton framework through the narrator Pisistratus Caxton and related fictional conventions.

Where Should You Start With Edward Bulwer-Lytton?

• Best historical-fiction starting point: The Last Days of Pompeii.
• Best occult-fiction starting point: Zanoni.
• Best speculative-fiction starting point: The Coming Race.
• Best connected two-book sequence: Ernest Maltravers, then Alice.
• Best family-fiction starting point: The Caxtons.
• Most other novels: standalone.

Readers who want the broadest introduction usually do best with The Last Days of Pompeii. Those more interested in the strange, occult, or philosophical side of Bulwer-Lytton should instead begin with Zanoni or A Strange Story.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Novels in Publication Order

The following sequence gives the clearest route through Bulwer-Lytton’s principal novels and longer fiction. Several books were serialized before appearing in volume form, so exact dates can vary slightly between periodical and book publication. The order below uses the standard original book sequence.

1. Falkland (1827)
2. Pelham (1828)
3. The Disowned (1828)
4. Devereux (1829)
5. Paul Clifford (1830)
6. Eugene Aram (1832)
7. Godolphin (1833)
8. Asmodeus at Large (1833)
9. The Last Days of Pompeii (1834)
10. The Pilgrims of the Rhine (1834)
11. Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes (1835)
12. The Student (1835)
13. Ernest Maltravers (1837)
14. Alice, or The Mysteries (1838)
15. Calderon the Courtier (1838)
16. Leila, or The Siege of Granada (1838)
17. Zicci (1838)
18. Night and Morning (1841)
19. Zanoni (1842)
20. The Last of the Barons (1843)
21. Lucretia, or The Children of Night (1846)
22. Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848)
23. The Caxtons: A Family Picture (1849)
24. My Novel, or Varieties in English Life (1853)
25. What Will He Do with It? (1858 to 1859)
26. A Strange Story (1861 to 1862)
27. The Coming Race (1871)
28. Kenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions (1873)
29. The Parisians (1873, volume publication followed in 1874)
30. Pausanias, the Spartan (1876, posthumous and unfinished)

Later editions sometimes include dramatic adaptations, story collections, and posthumous reconstructions among the novels. These should be separated from the principal fiction list unless the edition clearly identifies them as prose novels.

Ernest Maltravers and Alice in Order

This is Bulwer-Lytton’s clearest direct novel sequence. Alice, or The Mysteries was explicitly published as a sequel to Ernest Maltravers.

1. Ernest Maltravers (1837)
2. Alice, or The Mysteries (1838)

Read them in that order. Characters, relationships, and unresolved emotional threads from Ernest Maltravers continue into Alice, so beginning with the sequel removes much of the intended background.

The Caxton Books and Related Novels

The Caxtons introduces the Caxton family and the narrator Pisistratus Caxton. Bulwer-Lytton later used Pisistratus as a fictional authorial voice in My Novel and What Will He Do with It?.

1. The Caxtons: A Family Picture (1849)
2. My Novel, or Varieties in English Life (1853)
3. What Will He Do with It? (1858 to 1859)

This is not a trilogy in the modern sense of one continuous protagonist and plot. The Caxtons is the most directly family-centered novel, while the later books use the Caxton narrative frame more loosely.

For readers interested in the full Caxton conception, publication order is still best. It preserves the development from the family novel to Bulwer-Lytton’s broader social fiction.

The Crime Novels: Paul Clifford and Eugene Aram

Paul Clifford and Eugene Aram are often grouped among the so-called Newgate novels because both center on crime, criminality, punishment, and the social conditions surrounding offenders.

1. Paul Clifford (1830)
2. Eugene Aram (1832)

They are thematic companions rather than sequels. Paul Clifford follows a fictional highwayman, while Eugene Aram is based on the historical schoolmaster and convicted murderer Eugene Aram.

Readers can choose either independently, but publication order provides the clearest view of Bulwer-Lytton’s developing interest in crime and social judgment.

Historical Novels in a Useful Reading Sequence

Bulwer-Lytton wrote several major historical novels spanning ancient Rome, medieval England, Renaissance Europe, and the Norman Conquest. They do not form one chronological saga.

1. The Last Days of Pompeii (1834)
2. Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes (1835)
3. Leila, or The Siege of Granada (1838)
4. Calderon the Courtier (1838)
5. The Last of the Barons (1843)
6. Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848)
7. Pausanias, the Spartan (1876, unfinished)

Publication order is preferable to historical chronology because these stories do not share a cast. The settings range across widely separated centuries, and no single family or narrator connects them.

The Last Days of Pompeii as a Standalone

The Last Days of Pompeii is Bulwer-Lytton’s most widely recognized historical novel and a strong first choice. The story is set shortly before and during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

• Prequel: none.
• Sequel: none by Bulwer-Lytton.
• Series status: standalone.
• Required background: none.

Later novels by other authors set in Pompeii should not be treated as additions to Bulwer-Lytton’s bibliography.

Zicci and Zanoni: Related but Not the Same Book

Zicci is a shorter 1838 work that served as an important precursor to Zanoni. Bulwer-Lytton later reworked and greatly expanded occult ideas associated with Zicci in the 1842 novel.

1. Zicci (1838) Optional precursor
2. Zanoni (1842) Main novel

Readers do not need Zicci before Zanoni. The later novel is not simply volume two of a continuing story, and it can be read entirely on its own.

Completists may prefer to read Zicci first to see how Bulwer-Lytton developed the occult concepts he later transformed.

A Strange Story and Bulwer-Lytton’s Occult Fiction

A Strange Story belongs to the later supernatural and occult side of Bulwer-Lytton’s career. It is separate from Zanoni and does not continue its characters.

A useful occult-fiction path is:

1. Zicci
2. Zanoni
3. The Haunted and the Haunters
4. A Strange Story
5. The Coming Race

This is a thematic route rather than one fictional continuity. It lets readers follow Bulwer-Lytton’s recurring fascination with unseen forces, mesmerism, hidden knowledge, supernatural power, and alternative forms of human existence.

The Haunted and the Haunters

The Haunted and the Haunters, or The House and the Brain is a famous supernatural novelette first published in the late 1850s. It is one of Bulwer-Lytton’s most frequently anthologized shorter works.

It is not a prequel to A Strange Story, even though both works explore supernatural or unexplained phenomena. It should be treated as Optional standalone short fiction.

The Coming Race and the Vril Title Problem

The Coming Race, published anonymously in 1871, is one of Bulwer-Lytton’s most influential speculative novels. It describes an advanced underground civilization whose power derives from an energy called Vril.

Modern editions frequently publish the same novel under titles such as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. These should not be counted as separate books.

• The Coming Race: original principal title.
• Vril: The Power of the Coming Race: later retitled edition.
• Count in reading order: once.

Bulwer-Lytton did not publish a sequel continuing the unnamed narrator’s encounter with the subterranean Vril-ya.

Bulwer-Lytton’s Later Novels

The final period of Bulwer-Lytton’s fiction produced several large novels that are independent of his earlier series.

1. A Strange Story (1861 to 1862)
2. The Coming Race (1871)
3. Kenelm Chillingly (1873)
4. The Parisians (1873 to 1874)
5. Pausanias, the Spartan (1876, posthumous and unfinished)

Kenelm Chillingly and The Parisians were among Bulwer-Lytton’s final completed novels. Neither is a continuation of The Coming Race.

Pausanias, the Spartan Is Unfinished

Pausanias, the Spartan was left unfinished and published after Bulwer-Lytton’s death. It should not be presented as a completed final novel on the same footing as Kenelm Chillingly or The Parisians.

• Status: unfinished historical romance.
• Publication: posthumous.
• Required reading: no.
• Best placement: after the completed novels.

Plays and Dramatic Works

Bulwer-Lytton was also a successful dramatist. His plays should remain separate from the novel sequence.

1. The Duchess de la Vallière (1837)
2. The Lady of Lyons (1838)
3. Richelieu (1839)
4. Money (1840)
5. Not So Bad as We Seem (1851)
6. The Rightful Heir (1868)
7. Walpole, or Every Man Has His Price (1869)

A later prose version of The Lady of Lyons appeared after Bulwer-Lytton’s death. Readers should distinguish such adaptations from original novels written during his lifetime.

A Recommended Bulwer-Lytton Reading Route

Because the bibliography spans so many genres, a selective order gives new readers a better introduction than starting mechanically with Falkland.

1. The Last Days of Pompeii
2. Paul Clifford
3. Ernest Maltravers
4. Alice, or The Mysteries
5. Zanoni
6. The Caxtons
7. A Strange Story
8. The Coming Race
9. Kenelm Chillingly

This route samples historical fiction, crime, connected contemporary fiction, occult writing, family fiction, and speculative fiction without requiring a reader to tackle every early novel first.

Should Bulwer-Lytton Be Read in Historical Chronology?

No. His historical novels cover widely separated periods and do not form one continuous world. Rearranging them by ancient, medieval, and modern setting would not improve character continuity.

Use publication order for a complete career read. Use the smaller connected sequences only where actual continuity exists, especially Ernest Maltravers followed by Alice.

Current Publication Status

Edward Bulwer-Lytton died in January 1873. His original body of work is complete.

Kenelm Chillingly and The Parisians belong to his final completed fiction, while Pausanias, the Spartan was published posthumously in unfinished form.

Modern editions of The Coming Race, The Last Days of Pompeii, Zanoni, and other public-domain works may carry recent publication dates. Those dates do not change the original reading order.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Reading Order FAQs

Do Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novels need to be read in order?

Usually no. Most are standalone. The important exception is Alice, or The Mysteries, which should be read after Ernest Maltravers.

Is Alice a sequel to Ernest Maltravers?

Yes. It was explicitly published as a sequel and continues characters and relationships from the earlier novel.

Is The Coming Race the same book as Vril?

Yes. Editions titled Vril: The Power of the Coming Race are versions of the same novel originally known as The Coming Race.

Is Zicci a prequel to Zanoni?

It is better described as an earlier precursor or prototype. Bulwer-Lytton substantially reworked its occult material when creating Zanoni.

Are The Caxtons and My Novel connected?

Yes, through the Caxton literary framework and Pisistratus Caxton, although they do not form a simple continuous family trilogy in the modern sense.

What is Bulwer-Lytton’s best historical novel to start with?

The Last Days of Pompeii is the safest choice. It is standalone and remains one of his most widely read novels.

Was Pausanias, the Spartan completed?

No. It was unfinished at Bulwer-Lytton’s death and appeared posthumously.

The Best Way Through Bulwer-Lytton’s Bibliography

Edward Bulwer-Lytton does not require one rigid master chronology. Begin with The Last Days of Pompeii, Zanoni, or The Coming Race according to the kind of fiction you prefer.

For connected material, read Ernest Maltravers before Alice, and approach The Caxtons, My Novel, and What Will He Do with It? in publication order. Everything else can largely be read independently, with publication order remaining the strongest choice for a complete career survey.