Bulwer-Lytton, Rosina, Lady (1802–1882)
Bulwer-Lytton, Rosina, Lady (1802–1882)
English novelist. Name variations: Lady Bulwer-Lytton. Born Rosina Doyle Wheeler in Ballywhire, County Limerick, Ireland, on November 2, 1802; died in Upper Sydenham, in London, England, on March 12, 1882; youngest daughter of Francis Wheeler and Anna Doyle Wheeler (the daughter of an archdeacon); married Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st baron Lytton, August 1827; children: Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1828–1848); Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (1831–1891); grandmother of Lady Constance Lytton .
Despite his mother's wishes and the cessation of his yearly allowance, Edward Bulwer-Lytton married Rosina Wheeler, a popular member of the literary circle surrounding Lady Caroline Lamb , in 1827. In 1836, Rosina legally separated from her husband because of his volatile temper (and possibly domestic violence), and was given custody of their two children. Two years later, they were taken from her. Rosina saw her daughter Emily only once more before the young girl's death at age 20. In 1839, Lady Bulwer-Lytton attacked her husband in print with her book Cheveley, or the Man of Honour, which met with scandalous success, and she continued to publicly taunt her husband until his death in 1873. Her letters were edited by Louisa Devey as Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton (1887); see also Michael Sadleir's Bulwer, a Panorama: Edward and Rosina, 1803–36 (1931).