Letter from Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Vienna, to Rose Blaze de Bury, 1869 January 27 : autograph manuscript signed.

Responding to the news that Saint Paul's magazine has rejected her offer to write a review of his father Lord Lytton's play "The rightful heir", remarking that he is "not sorry" to hear that her review will not appear in Saint Paul's and referring to the journal as "a magazine which can hardly carry much critical weight with it", although he regards Anthony Trollope's rejection of her "friendly & flattering offer ... as a discourtesy both to my father & myself.", and stating that he "will write at once to secure (if possible) a place for the article in Macmillan and also to keep open the Fortnightly"; thanking her for her friendly efforts on behalf of "The rightful heir", and adding that "If there were any intelligent & patriotic criticism in England, it would ... welcome even an unsuccessful attempt on the part of men of genius & reputation to raise the character of the British stage, by contributing to the literature of the theatre whatever aims at something less ignoble than the wretched trash on which the playgoing public is left to feed."; complaining of his duties as part of the Prince of Wales entourage during his recent stay in Vienna ("I am tired to death of dancing, prancing, standing, & withstanding, attendance on the P. of Wales"), the demanding schedule of activities he has been called upon to participate in as a guest at "the Burg", and the bitter cold; writing that his "purgatorial pangs" were now over, as he took his leave of the Prince that morning, and remarking that it was kind of the Emperor to invite them so frequently to dinner, although he would have been gladly spared the honor.