Bulwer Lytton

I read somewhere on the Web, just below a photograph of Bulwer Lytton's memorial in ?Westminster Abbey, this caption: 'I hate Edward Bulwer Lytton. It is appropriate that his memorial was on the floor, so I could step on it. If you ever feel compelled to begin a story with "it was a dark and stormy night," just stop. It's been done before, thanks to this chirp. I hate Bulwer Lytton.'

It's not the first time I encounter such marked opposition—this is of course an euphemism!—to EBL. I had in mind to read an e-version of Rienzi sometimes. Is his prose really so bad? Any comment?

I've been reading The Last Days of Pompeii mainly because there of the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest in the States every year, with the winner being the author of the worst first line of a book. He is indeed so overblown that it's positively hilarious. So far, I'm only up to the scene with the little, blind flower girl.