About the book: 1988 / Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) - novelist, playwright, one of the most famous writers of his time. This book includes the historical novel “The Last Days of Pompeii” and one of the writer’s early novels “Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman” (1828). The novel “The Last Days of Pompeii” describes the events preceding the eruption of Vesuvius in the 1st century. n. e., which buried a thriving ancient Roman resort town under the ashes. Volcanic ash has preserved intact the houses of those who lived two thousand years before us. The beautiful rich woman and the blind slave, the brave gladiator and the treacherous priest of the Egyptian goddess - they were exactly the same as us, they loved, hated, were jealous, and defended their dignity in the same way. An earthquake intervened in their lives at the most dramatic moment... Pelham is a young aristocrat-dandy, a regular at the high-society salons of London and Paris, gambling dens and taverns, a dandy, a carefree playmaker. Hypocrisy comes easily and simply to him. Like Chichikov, Henry Pelham knows how to get around everyone and deceive everyone with his ostentatious good nature. The sayings, or everyday rules, that Pelham composes are a mixture of vulgar glorification of panache with subtle and true thoughts. A. S. Pushkin was especially interested in Bulwer-Lytton’s novel in his time. The text of the novels is given in abbreviation.