Edward Lytton was an English novelist, playwright and politician. Many famous literary phrases come from Lord Lytton such as: "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and "it was a dark and stormy night". An excerpt from the preface reads, "during the early years of the first and most brilliant successes of the French Republic, in the general ferment of society, and the brief equalization of ranks, Claude's high-placed love; his ardent feelings, his unsettled principles (the struggle between which makes the passion of this drama), his ambition, and his career, were phenomena that characterized the age, and in which the spirit of the nation went along with the extravagance of the individual." This play for first performed at Covent Garden Theatre in February of 1838.