Beschreibung:

LYTTON, Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of (1841-1936, wife of Robert, 1st Earl of Lytton). Autograph manuscript journal, 1 March 1876 - 5 April 1877, DESCRIBING THE FIRST YEAR OF LORD LYTTON'S VICEROYALTY OF INDIA, beginning with their departure from England, describing their arrival at Bombay on 7 April, and recording her impressions of the scenes, journeys and people of their first year in India, approximately 185 pages, 4to , half roan (lockable clasp partially detached); with a second autograph journal, 1 January - 12 October 1865, describing life at the legation in Athens and subsequently Lisbon, in a Lett's no.10 diary, 90 pages, 8vo (blanks), cloth boards
LYTTON, Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of (1841-1936, wife of Robert, 1st Earl of Lytton). Autograph manuscript journal, 1 March 1876 - 5 April 1877, DESCRIBING THE FIRST YEAR OF LORD LYTTON'S VICEROYALTY OF INDIA, beginning with their departure from England, describing their arrival at Bombay on 7 April, and recording her impressions of the scenes, journeys and people of their first year in India, approximately 185 pages, 4to , half roan (lockable clasp partially detached); with a second autograph journal, 1 January - 12 October 1865, describing life at the legation in Athens and subsequently Lisbon, in a Lett's no.10 diary, 90 pages, 8vo (blanks), cloth boards; [ and :] Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of LYTTON (1831-1891). Approximately 29 autograph letters or notes signed to his wife (5 to others), Nussdorff, Cintra, Kensington, Carlsbad (series), Paris, Florence, Naples and elsewhere, 15 July 1862 - 12 May 1886 and n.d., affectionate letters on diplomatic and embassy matters, often referring to his uncle, Lord Dalling, on relations with his father, the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton (a letter of 16 March 1862 to Lady Bloomfield reports the purchase of Knebworth, 'My Father ... writes me word that he has just bought a new property in Herts, near London -- with a charming old Elizabethan House upon it'), literary matters (an undated letter of ?1855 to John Forster encloses the text of his poem, 'Desire', beginning 'The golden Planet of the Occident', 108 lines), descriptions of local colour, etc, approximately 135 pages, 8vo (2 letters incomplete, three with minor rodent damage, a few with minor damp damage), with one letter by Edith; envelopes (including a number empty), two photographs. Disraeli's appointment of Lytton, a diplomat and litterateur, to the traditionally political post of Viceroy of India caused 'general astonishment' (ODNB): his viceroyalty was to be a turbulent and controversial one, encompassing the proclamation of Victoria as queen empress of India (1 January 1877), the reform of the famine code in response to the Great Famine of 1876-8, and the catastrophe of the Second Afghan War. His wife meanwhile transformed the style of the viceregal court, becoming 'particularly distinguished for [her] displays of high fashion, sustained by regular supplies from the couturiers and milliners of Paris' (ODNB).