Rosina Bulwer Lytton (née Rosina Doyle Wheeler; 4 November 1802 – 12 March 1882) wrote and published fourteen novels, a volume of essays and a volume of letters. Her husband was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a novelist and politician. She spelled her married surname without the hyphen used by her husband.
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Her mother was the writer and advocate of political rights for women, Anna Doyle Wheeler, the daughter of a prebendary from Fennor Parish, County Tipperary, Ireland.[1] Her father was Francis Massey Wheeler.[1]
Rosina Doyle Wheeler married Edward Bulwer-Lytton (at that time surnamed simply Bulwer) on 29 August 1827. This was against his mother's wishes, and so she withdrew his allowance and he was forced to work for a living.[2]
His writing and efforts in the political arena took a toll upon their marriage, and the couple legally separated in 1836. Her children were taken from her.[3] In 1839, her novel, Cheveley, or the Man of Honour, in which Edward Bulwer-Lytton was bitterly caricatured, was published.
In June 1858, when her husband was standing as parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire, she appeared at the hustings and indignantly denounced him. She was consequently placed under restraint as insane, but liberated a few weeks later following a public outcry. This was chronicled in her book A Blighted Life.[4][5] For years she continued her attacks upon her husband's character; she would outlive him by nine years.
They had two children: