The frontispiece, meanwhile, is from the novel A Strange Story, which leads off the omnibus. That novel, which was first published as a serial, deals with a physician who is staunchly on the side of science and rationalism, yet finds his worldview shaken as he confronts dark magic and supernatural forces. Some reviewers say it's a bit on the bloated side and filled with lengthy tangents in the footnotes, which is both par for the course for Bulwer-Lytton and makes sense if you're getting paid by the word for a serial novel. The woman standing beside the tree in the frontispiece is likely meant to be Lillian, the doctor's love interest in A Strange Story. Perhaps she's been mesmerized — not by the doctor, but by Evil ForcesTM.
The final Bulwer-Lytton offering in the omnibus is his 1842 novel Zanoni. It is also occult-themed, centered around Rosicrucians and the secret of eternal life. But, as one Goodreads reviewer notes, "This is most emphatically not a novel that treats the occult as something evil. The occult in this novel is rather a seeking for wisdom. On the very rare occasions on which Mejnour does interfere in the affairs of humanity it is always on the side of good. Zanoni frequently intervenes in human affairs, and again always on the side of good."