But their relations to politics and letters were reversed.
Disraeli was a born politician who was also a very considerable man of letters: Bulwer was a born man of letters who was a by no means inconsiderable politician.

His literary ability was extraordinarily diversified: but, once more, he was (here also) a born novelist, who was also a not inconsiderable dramatist; a critic who might not impossibly have been great, a miscellanist of ability, and a verse-writer than whom many a worse has somehow or other obtained the name of poet.

He began novel-writing very early (_Falkland_ is of 1827), he continued it all his life, and he was the very Proteus-chameleon of the novel in changing his styles to suit the tastes of the day.

He never exactly copied anybody: and in all his various attempts he went extremely near to the construction of masterpieces.

In the novel of society with _Pelham_ (1828); the novel of crime with _Eugene Aram_ (1832) and _Zanoni_ (1842); the novel of passion and a sort of mystery with _Ernest Maltravers_ and _Alice_; the historic romance with _The Last Days of Pompeii_ (1834), _The Last of the Barons_ (1843), and _Harold_ (1848), he made marks deep and early.