Edward Bulwer-Lytton's My Novel begins with a witty, self-aware frame in Uncle Roland's tower, where the Caxtons gather on a winter night amid books, newspapers, domestic comfort, and financial worry. From the start, the novel blends family banter, literary ambition, and social satire, as Mr. Caxton turns from whimsical theories of human origins to the practical advice that Pisistratus should write a novel people will want to read. That counsel opens into a vivid rural world of squires, parsons, and village life, where class, wit, and moral feeling constantly collide. At the center stands Parson Dale, whose kindness is tested in a comic quarrel over a neglected parish stock and a donkey, and whose humane sympathy extends to Widow Fairfield, her son Lenny, and the quiet dignity of their cottage. The novel contrasts this moral warmth with sharper minds and harder motives: Randal Leslie debates Dale over power, intellect, and benevolence, while Mrs. Hazeldean's practical vigilance and the recurring discussions of books, authorship, and marriage reveal how literature, ambition, and family duty shape everyone's lives. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.