About the book

Raised in disreputable surroundings and drawn into crime, Paul Clifford develops a double existence as an outlaw and a gentleman capable of moving through fashionable society. His attachment to Lucy Brandon makes that division increasingly painful, bringing the prospect of an honorable future into conflict with the consequences of his past. Bulwer-Lytton uses the adventure to examine the making of criminals: prisons teach vice, punishment hardens its subjects, and respectable society excuses conduct resembling what it condemns among the poor. Comedy, romance, and legal peril therefore serve a deliberately argumentative purpose. This complete text also contains the author's explanatory prefaces, which make his criticism of prison discipline and severe criminal law unusually explicit.

Crime and punishment
Respectability and hypocrisy
Love and social barriers

Why read it

Look beyond the famous opening to a novel that uses an outlaw's story to challenge punitive institutions.

Complete English text with the author's prefaces

Contents and reading sections

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22
Section 23
Section 24
Section 25
Section 26
Section 27
Section 28
Section 29
Section 30
Section 31
Section 32
Section 33
Section 34
Section 35
Section 36
Section 37
Section 38
Section 39
Section 40
Section 41
Section 42
Section 43
Section 44
Section 45
Section 46
Section 47
Section 48
Section 49
Section 50
Section 51
Section 52
Section 53
Section 54
Section 55
Section 56
Section 57
Section 58
Section 59
Section 60
Section 61
Section 62
Section 63
Section 64
Section 65
Section 66
Section 67
Section 68
Section 69
Section 70
Section 71
Section 72
Section 73
Section 74
Section 75
Section 76
Section 77
Section 78
Section 79
Section 80
Section 81
Section 82
Section 83
Section 84
Section 85
Section 86
Section 87
Section 88
Section 89

About the book

Why read it

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