Title-page and Publisher's Preface in the first American pirated edition of Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's gothic romance A Strange Story, published by Gardner A. Fuller, Boston. The chief difference between the serial text in Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 8 March 1862 and this volume with steel engravings lies in the limited number of the steels completed by engraver F. O. Freeman based on the drawings of J. N. Hyde. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passages Illustrated: The Title-Page and "Publisher's Preface."
A STRANGE STORY by SIR E. BULWER LYTTON. With engravings on steel by F. O. Freeman. Drawings by J. N. Hyde, FROM DESIGNS BY GARDNER A. FULLER. BOSTON: GARDNER A. FULLER. 1862.
The universal popularity accorded to Dickens's Great Expectations [sic] — issued in uniform style with Strange Story [sic] — together with an unprecedented sale, have induced me to announce a series of similar works [advertised at the back of the volume: The Pennimans, Levanche, Tricks of the Trade, The Learned World, and Wilkie Collins's No Name].
The names of Charles Dickens, E. Bulwer Lytton, and Wilkie Collins, a Trio claiming more readers than any three living Authors, is sufficient guarantee of future publications; and I can but hope, that my endeavors to present popular writers before the public in a favorable light, will meet with a generous approval.
GARDNER A. FULLER.
Commentary: The Pirated Edition's Backstory
As Fuller's letter to Charles Dickens (19 December 1861) and Dickens's reply (16 January 1862) make clear, for Gardner A. Fuller, a Boston and Rochester, New York, publisher of dubious business ethics, this was hardly an "authorized" edition. Like Fuller's first edition of Great Expectations, the text has undoubtedly been copied directly from the Harper's Weekly serial. And again Fuller offers his readers just four steel engravings (including the frontispiece) in the single octavo of 386 pages.
Bibliography
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 8 March 1862.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by F. O. Freeman and J. N. Hyde. Boston: Gardner A. Fuller, 1862.
Bulwer Lytton, Edward (Lord Lytton). A Strange Story. The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton, Vol. VII. New York: P. F. Collier, n. d. Pp. 7-242.
Created 30 July 2026