Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Charles Dickens and the Gordon Riots Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Charles Dickens and the Gordon Riots Charles Dickens' 200th birthday was celebrated yesterday, February 7. Among Dickens' many, many works is one rather unusual historical novel, Barnaby Rudge, concerning the Gordon Riots--those anti-Catholic disturbances that followed the first steps of emancipating Catholics in England. There are two interesting features of this novel: one that Dickens wasn't really that interested in history and the other that Dickens really had no sympathy for the Catholics attacked during the Gordon Riots! As to the first feature: Chesterton commented on Dickens writing two historical novels (A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge) while not knowing anything or caring about history: But it is very typical of Dickens's living interest in his own time, that though he wrote two historical novels they were neither of them of very ancient history. They were both, indeed, of very recent history; only they were those parts of recent history which were specially picturesque. I do not think that this was due to any mere consciousness on his part that he knew no history.

Undoubtedly he knew no history; and he may or may not have been conscious of the fact. But the consciousness did not prevent him from writing a History of England. Nor did it prevent him from interlarding all or any of his works with tales of the pictorial past, such as the tale of the broken swords in Master Humphrey's Clock, or the indefensibly delightful nightmare of the lady in the stage-coach, which helps to soften the amiable end of Pickwick. Neither, worst of all, did it prevent him from dogmatising anywhere and everywhere about the past, of which he knew nothing; it did not prevent him from telling the bells to tell Trotty Veck that the Middle Ages were a failure, nor from solemnly declaring that the best thing that the mediæval monks ever did was to create the mean and snobbish quietude of a modern cathedral city. No, it was not historical reverence that held him back from dealing with the remote past; but rather something much better -- a living interest in the living century in which he was born. He would have thought himself quite intellectually capable of writing a novel about the Council of Trent or the First Crusade.

He would have thought himself quite equal to analysing the psychology of Abelard or giving a bright, satiric sketch of St. Augustine. It must frankly be confessed that it was not a sense of his own unworthiness that held him back; I fear it was rather a sense of St. Augustine's unworthiness. He could not see the point of any history before the first slow swell of the French Revolution. He could understand the revolutions of the eighteenth century; all the other revolutions of history (so many and so splendid) were unmeaning to him. But the revolutions of the eighteenth century he did understand; and to them therefore he went back, as all historical novelists go back, in search of the picturesque. And from this fact an important result follows, The result that follows is this: that his only two historical novels are both tales of revolutions -- of eighteenth-century revolutions. These two eighteenth-century revolutions may seem to differ, and perhaps do differ in everything except in being revolutions and of the eighteenth century. The French Revolution, which is the theme of A Tale of Two Cities, was a revolt in favour of all that is now called enlightenment and liberation.

The great Gordon Riot, which is the theme of Barnaby Rudge, was a revolt in favour of something which would now be called mere ignorant and obscurantist Protestantism. Nevertheless both belonged more typically to the age out of which Dickens came -- the great sceptical and yet creative eighteenth century of Europe. Whether the mob rose on the right side or the wrong they both belonged to the time in which a mob could rise, in which a mob could conquer. No growth of intellectual science or of moral cowardice had made it impossible to fight in the streets, whether for the republic or for the Bible. If we wish to know what was the real link, existing actually in ultimate truth, existing unconsciously in Dickens's mind, which connected the Gordon Riots with the French Revolution, the link may be defined though not with any great adequacy. The nearest and truest way of stating it is that neither of the two could possibly happen in Fleet Street to-morrow evening.

As to the second feature, Dickens commented on his sympathies in the preface: "However imperfectly those disturbances [the 1780 riots] are set forth in the following pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the Romish Church, though he acknowledges as most men do, some esteemed friends among the followers of its creed." As I read the book a couple of years ago, I realized that Dickens' sympathies are against the anti-Catholics, not for the Catholics. The same pattern occurs in A Tale of Two Cities: Dickens is not for the aristocrats slaughtered at the guillotine; he is against the injustice of the execution of Charles Darney and revenge that furthers the suffering of Dr. Manette and Lucy. To Dickens, the Catholic and the aristocrat are foreign and unknown, but he still cannot stand to see them unjustly treated.

Although his natural sympathies are for the mob and not for the Catholics or the aristocrat abused by the mob, he still has to reveal the horror of the mob's cruelty--just as much as he exposed the cruelty of the Marquis d'Evremonde and lacked sympathy for the "Romish creed", even though he had friends who were Catholics! Peter Ackroyd describes this idea to a certain extent in his analysis of Barnaby Rudge: The Gordon riots were the single most important threat to Parliament, and to the authorities of London, in the city's history. They began as a protest against the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, in which Roman Catholics were relieved of certain historical penalties. But under the leadership of Lord George Gordon the first protests quickly turned into a form of mob rule, in which Parliament was invaded and the prison of Newgate burned to the ground. For a few days London was at the mercy of the populace. Dickens was always interested in the behaviour of the London crowd. He knew its volatility at first hand, having been brought up in its shadow.

Just a year before he began Barnaby Rudge he attended the public hanging of a murderer, François Benjamin Courvoisier, and noted of the mob gathered on that occasion that there was "nothing but ribaldry, debauchery, levity, drunkenness and flaunting vice in fifty other shapes". These were scenes that he recreated in the novel. Even as he was writing it there were rumours of Chartist uprisings in the heart of the city. Two years before there had been street battles in Birmingham and in Newport. Dickens was a radical by instinct, if not by judgment, and he always manifested a signal dislike or suspicion of authority in all its forms. Yet he was too capacious a novelist to take a single or unambiguous attitude towards the events he was describing. At any rate, belated happy birthday, Charles Dickens! Posted by Dear Stephanie Having read your excellent article I think that you may be interested to know that a new adaptation of 'Barnaby Rudge' is going to be performed at the Kings Theatre in Southsea as part of the Dickens' Bicentenary celebrations. with a cast of aspiring local actors it promises to be an exciting production.

For more information see We'd love you to come and see it. Sue Rose Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voice en-gb Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 10:20:21 GMT 2017-01-20T10:20:21Z Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017 The Guardian The call of the bells is a call to a moral awakening | Giles Fraser: Loose canon For centuries, bells have served as prompts for us to become a better version of ourselves. But their days appear numbered<p>Charles Dickens spent most&nbsp;of the year after he wrote A Christmas Carol in Italy.

Under contract to write a series of five Christmas books, and struggling to think of a follow-up to his popular story of Scrooge’s redemption, Dickens was woken one morning by the&nbsp;bells of the city of Genoa&nbsp;– “the&nbsp;clang&nbsp;and clash of all its steeples, pouring into his ears, again and again, in a tuneless, grating, discordant, jerking, hideous vibration” as <a href="" title="">John Forster, his first biographer described it</a>. The book that this inspired was to become The Chimes – not one of his better known works maybe, but characteristically Dickens in its concern for the poor and our need for a moral awakening to&nbsp;their&nbsp;condition.</p><p>The bells serve as a moral metaphor throughout the novel.

“High up in the steeple of an old church, far above the light and murmur of the town and far below the flying clouds that shadow it,” he wrote, “is the wild and dreary place at night: and high up in the steeple of an old church, dwelt the Chimes I tell of.”</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Christianity Photograph: The bells of Southwark cathedral/Giles Fraser Photograph: The bells of Southwark cathedral/Giles Fraser Giles Fraser 2017-01-12T16:04:43Z In hard times, reading fiction reminds us we are human in a way Twitter never can | Hope Whitmore I find solace in books, which reminds us that all the bad things happening now have happened before – and that it’s OK to feel lost or scared<p>“Do you have high hopes?” “I hope you like being called Hope” are comments I get frequently, often followed by a hearty laugh, and “I bet you’ve never heard that one before.”</p><p>My name is a symbol for something both life-sustaining – the essentialness of hope – and dangerous – foolish hopes.

I am now reconciled to this. I went through a teenage phase of making people use my more normal middle name, but it didn’t stick because it wasn’t mine. I now love the name I used to shun, but I also understand what a loaded word hope is.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">In these turbulent times, take a break from social media to find comfort | David Sax</a> </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">The rise of fascism is not inevitable – just look at Bridges Not Walls | Ellie Mae O’Hagan</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Books Top 10 escapes in literature <p>From Alexandre Dumas to Stephen King and John le Carré, these stories of nerve and endurance are perennially compelling</p><p>To say that “escape” is a broad term in popular literature is an understatement. It can refer to pushing boundaries and attempting to escape from your social station, in stories such as Great Expectations or The Grapes of Wrath.

It could imply a personal escape from one’s inner turmoil, as in The Catcher in the Rye.<br></p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">The Tunnels: JFK, the cold war and the Berlin Wall</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Fiction Christmas chaos in literature, from Emma to Adrian Mole <p>Forget Dickensian happy endings, the real Christmas classics tell stories of fraught family gatherings, orgies of consumption and festivities for one, writes John Mullan</p><p>All happy Christmases are the same, but all unhappy Christmases are unhappy after their own fashion. We can put up with the festive good cheer of the Cratchits in <a href=""><em>A Christmas Carol</em></a> or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy in <a href=""><em>Little Women</em></a>, but what a discerning reader relishes is a really hellish Christmas. Writers know this perfectly well and have always revelled in Christmases gone badly wrong.

What better occasion could there be for the release of long-suppressed resentment or anger or despair that make for satisfying drama?</p><p>The mismatch between merry pretensions and grim reality is often comic. No wonder that <em>Bridget Jones’s Diary</em> begins in the aftermath of one Christmas and heads towards a second, even worse, Christmas, in its last chapter. (Though no sooner has Bridget opened the damning maternal gift of a slow cooker for one, than Helen Fielding saves her from the family Christmas by having Mark Darcy appear to whisk her away.) In John Lanchester’s 2012 novel <a href=""><em>Capital</em></a>, Christmas is the beginning of a hubristic descent from monied complacency for <a href="">banker Roger Yount</a>. It all begins when he finds that his Christmas bonus is a mere £30,000 (he had hoped for a million). Then his trophy wife, Arabella, walks out on him on Christmas Eve, forcing him to look after their two small children while the au pair is away.

Arabella is not leaving him, you understand, just teaching him a lesson: she has absconded to a spa hotel (charged to his account) while he learns to appreciate her. Christmas for Roger means that the nanny agency is closed and no help is at hand.</p><p>I found my mother crying and running the turkey under the hot tap. ‘The bloody thing won’t thaw out, Adrian.'</p><p>Over Christmas there is a marked increase in the number of murders. Mystery writers must have known this in their bones</p><p>Things go wrong at Christmas – the year has been saving them up and knows hospitals are operating with skeleton staff</p><p>I need to know if a Christmas in St Jude is something that you really, really want for yourself. Because if all the rest of us are agreed that it’s important to be together as a family in St Jude one last time –</p><p>It was a Christmas like the ones they remembered from the old days – and how could they forget how the dinner always ended? It was traditional, you might say. Rosaleen got upset.</p><p>Dickens is able to see through the falseness of some seasonal jollification.

Perhaps hell is other people, making merry</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Books Dickens wrote the script on killer drivers | Letters <p>Susanna Rustin (<a href="" title="">Killer Drivers are the biggest stranger danger of all, 7 December</a>) tells us that in 1925 F Scott Fitzgerald “perceived the sociopathic potential of driving”. But careless driving was not born with the motor car. In A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 Charles Dickens had written of the dangers of “hard driving” and describes an aristocrat in his horse-drawn coach being driven at a reckless speed, “with an inhuman abandonment of consideration not easy to understand in these days”. So when his coach kills a child, he obviously feels no remorse or fear of the law, telling the distraught father: “It is extraordinary to me that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children.” He then speeds carelessly away, presumably to endanger and ruin more lives.

So what’s new?<br><strong>Bill Tordoff</strong><br><em>Bedford</em></p><p><strong><em>• Join the debate – email </em></strong><a href="mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com" title=""><strong><em>guardian.letters@theguardian.com</em></strong></a></p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Road transport Colm Tóibín: The nightmare before Christmas <p>Forget seasonal cheer, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol takes greater pleasure in Scrooge’s ghostly visions than in his redemption</p><p>A <a href=""><em>Christmas Carol</em></a> takes the form of a dark journey of the soul from wilfulness, selfishness, and miserliness towards redemption, generosity and happiness.

The figure of Scrooge is initially presented as a man locked into unhappy solitude and petty cruelty, someone whose ungiving, unyielding and resolute nature causes him no joy, but rather a grim satisfaction at having power over others, a power which he will wield in the darkest days of winter with particular determination, a power which goes against the very idea of what became known as the Christmas spirit.</p><p>This idea of Christmas, which the story itself did much to popularise, was already being preached about and written about in newspaper editorials when <em>A Christmas Carol</em> appeared in 1843.

Christmas, in its new manifestation, would include the idea of giving as well as receiving, of looking after the less fortunate as well as eating well and spending time in good company.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">Season's readings: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens</a> </p><p>Some of the images he sees are of comfort and joy, but they are experiences in which he cannot share</p><p>He went to church and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows; and found that anything could yield him pleasure.

He never dreamed that any walk – that anything – could give him so much happiness.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Charles Dickens Mansions of Misery review – Marshalsea and the horror of debt Jerry White offers an exuberant history of the debtors’ prison in Southwark, London, immortalised in the novels of Dickens<p>This colourful, exuberant, brilliantly detailed account by Jerry White is the latest in a long list of irreplaceable books about London, all written as if the author were personally remembering what he describes rather than excavating it. This one, anatomising one of London’s most famous prisons, the <a href="" title="">Marshalsea debtors’ jail</a>, bears a striking dedication, which remains at the heart of everything that follows: “To debtors everywhere.” His opening chapter etches a striking, Hogarthian panorama of the day-to-day experience of defaulters through the centuries, confronted with implacable creditors, back-street attorneys (the notorious <a href="" title="">pettifoggers</a>), corrupt lawyers hiking up their fees, a callous judiciary and brutal jailers.

And debt was no respecter of class: <a href="" title="">Daniel Defoe</a>, <a href="" title="">Richard Steele</a>, <a href="" title="">Henry Fielding</a>, <a href="" title="">Tobias Smollett</a>, <a href="" title="">Dr Johnson</a>, <a href="" title="">Oliver Goldsmith</a> and <a href="" title="">John Cleland</a> all suffered its depredations.</p><p>The inmates habitually referred to their place of confinement as 'this enchanted Castle' and even 'the College'</p><p>One defaulting prisoner was locked up with two dead bodies and stayed with them for six days</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> History Jeremy Hunt's workhouse and the art of misusing a quotation <p>The health secretary this week clumsily invoked Oliver Twist to scold doctors wanting more funds.

So we wondered what other great words politicians could mangle?</p><p>Health secretary <a href="">Jeremy Hunt this week quoted Oliver Twist</a> as he argued down pleas for more money for the health service, dismissing a report by the lobby group NHS Providers as amounting to saying: “There isn’t enough money, please sir, can I have some more?”</p><p>It was presumably lost on Hunt that the bearer of the begging bowl is the hero of the piece – a small orphan living in that Victorian forerunner of the welfare state, the workhouse. Bearing in mind the political power of selective quotation, we have ransacked the annals of literature to find some more useful quotes, ready for misuse. <br tabindex="-1"></p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Fiction Guardian Staff 2016-12-02T08:00:10Z Matt Haig on Christmas: ‘It was an anchor at the bottom of the year. It fixed my childhood in place’ <p>The festive period can feel overly sentimental and commercialised, but it also serves as a beacon of hope and joy.

Plus: Jenni Murray, John Cooper Clarke, Katherine Jenkins and others on what Christmas means to them</p><p>People tend to be snobby about Christmas, and they tend to be particularly snobby about the cultural things it produces: the overly commercialised songs, movies and TV ads. The excess and sentimentality of it, the inclusive, populist spirit, seem designed to bring out the Ebenezer Scrooge in even the most uncommitted of cultural snobs.</p><p>I will never join them. Yes, I know Christmas can be a pain. <a href="">When I was suffering from serious depression</a>, the whole season became a tormenting joke, my own misery highlighted by the contrast with the jollity of my surroundings. But Christmas was also one of the things that helped get me out of that depression.

It helped as a marker of progress, since it was always easier to remember Christmases in a way that you can’t remember, say, Octobers.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Books Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Matt Haig 2016-11-28T13:00:30Z The best literary events of Christmas 2016 – from Hay’s winter weekend to Adventures in Moominland |Katy Guest <p>Celebrate a Dickensian Christmas with candelit processions, carols and 1940s radio</p><p>So literary is the town of Folkestone that its Christmas lights are being switched on by a famous novelist. The town’s book festival opens on 18&nbsp;November, with an afternoon of free events that include Father Christmas, fireworks, carols and a lantern-lit parade, as well as Jonathan Coe switching on the creative quarter’s Christmas lights at 5.30pm.

From there, he will head to the Quarterhouse to open the book festival at a ticketed event, where he will talk about his trademark combination of social commentary and farce. A glass of wine&nbsp;and a mince pie are included in&nbsp;the ticket price.<br><strong><em>18&nbsp;November, </em></strong><a href="" title=""><strong><em>folkestonebookfest.com</em></strong></a><strong><em> </em></strong></p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Books Relief for Dickens museum as experts say portrait of writer's wife is genuine <p>Tests show that painting by Irish artist Daniel Maclise is almost entirely hidden under later overpainting</p><p>The good news for the <a href="">Charles Dickens museum in London</a> is that it does own an original portrait of the writer’s unfortunate wife, Catherine, by an important Victorian artist. The bad news is that it is almost entirely hidden under later overpainting.</p><p>Doubts about the authenticity of the portrait emerged in the past year.

It was considered the better of only two paintings of Catherine in the collection, and believed to be the work of the Irish artist Daniel Maclise, a friend of the author’s.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">Life of Catherine Dickens to be celebrated in new exhibition</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Charles Dickens Ice Cube to star as Fagin in new Oliver Twist film <p>NWA rapper will play Fagin in new musical adaptation of the Dickens story, with Tony-winning director of Broadway hit Hamilton behind the camera</p><p>Rapper <a href="">Ice Cube</a> will play Fagin in a new musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. </p><p>The former NWA star will also co-produce the film, <a href="">according to the Hollywood Reporter</a>. Thomas Kail, who won a Tony award for directing the Broadway hit musical <a href="">Hamilton</a>, will make his film directing debut.

</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">Ice Cube and Kevin Hart: ‘Hollywood is realising that black people go to movies’</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Musicals Why wouldn't it go viral? Clowns are unnerving and funny at the same time | Jason Wilson <p>Ben Radford, the author of a new book, Bad Clowns, isn’t surprised by the scary clown sightings that have moved from the US to the UK and Australia</p><p>It started in Green Bay, Wisconsin. On 1 August, witnesses reported a clown walking around with black balloons. </p><p>At the end of that month, in Greenville, South Carolina, a clown tried to lure some kids into the woods. Four days later, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the same thing happened. </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">Clown sightings: the day the craze began</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Clowns If you see a killer clown, don’t run | Tim Dowling My sighting of a masked man proved less than scary.

But we should spare a thought for real clowns trying to get to work<p>I thought I saw my first killer clown this week, coming toward me down a side street I was crossing. In my experience it is unwise to make eye contact with clowns, killer or otherwise, so I looked straight ahead and carried on.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">Knife-wielding 'killer clown' pursues Durham schoolchildren</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Clowns Fagin's Twist review – hip-hop Dickens show is full of artful dodging <p><strong>The Place, London<br></strong>Street dance meets Victorian workhouse as choreographer Tony Adigun imagines the childhoods of Oliver Twist’s villains</p><p>Street dance might seem an odd style for a Dickensian tale, but in choreographer <a href="">Tony Adigun</a>’s imaginative if flawed version of Oliver Twist, the nifty footwork and ducking and weaving suits all the pickpocketing and scamming in the story.

Adigun also uses hip-hop’s taut formations and face-offs to suggest close-knit gangs and the tensions within them.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Dance How thieves skimmed the Foundling childrens’ cream in 18th and 19th centuries <p>Unearthed documents show how Foundling Hospital children were robbed of full milk ration</p><p>Dickens’s <em>Oliver Twist</em> and his fellow workhouse children were fed on nothing but the thin broth known as “gruel”, and dreamed endlessly of “food, glorious food” in Lionel Bart’s musical version of the novel.

Now documents held in London’s historic Foundling Hospital have revealed that, while dietary standards were set high, the 400 orphans and abandoned boys and girls who lived there at any one time during the late 18th and 19th centuries were victims of an unscrupulous fraud: the cream was skimmed from their milk rations.</p><p>The hospital’s “great milk scandal” has been unearthed by Dr Jane Levi, a food history expert and a guest curator who was putting together an exhibition for the museum, <a href="" title="">Feeding the 400</a>.

This will run until 8 January at the site of Britain’s first children’s charity, a home for foundlings established by philanthropist Captain Thomas Coram and supported by both the composer George Frideric Handel and the artist William Hogarth.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Children From Roald Dahl to Harper Lee, six books for shy readers <p>Mr Darcy, Joe Gargery and the second Mrs de Winter tiptoe on to our list of the best depictions of shyness in fiction</p><ul><li><a href="">What lies beneath: an introvert’s guide to fiction – and life</a></li></ul><p>“Confidence is a quality I prize, although it has come to me a little late in the day,” writes <em>Rebecca</em>’s narrator, Mrs de Winter. “I suppose it is his dependence upon me that has made me bold at last. At any rate I have lost my diffidence, my timidity, my shyness with strangers. I am very different from that self who drove to Manderley for the first time ...

handicapped by a rather desperate gaucherie and filled with an intense desire to please.” Rather like <a href="" title="">Charlotte Brontë</a>’s Jane Eyre, Mrs de Winter wins her confidence when she tames a wild husband. Unlike Jane, she never gets a first name.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Fiction From page to stage: Harry Potter's success is a rare trick for novelists <p>JK Rowling’s theatrical venture has won admiring reviews, but Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley are among the predecessors who didn’t fare so well...</p><p>Judging by the spectacular advance sales and largely warm reviews for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, JK Rowling (who oversaw the sequel and takes a storyline credit) has cracked the theatre on her first go.

She’s not the first great British storyteller to be drawn to the stage, but the theatrical experiences of the creators of Frankenstein, Oliver Twist and Miss Havisham, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot were very different – mostly involving more aggravation than applause.</p><p>When Mary Shelley returned to London from Italy in 1823, five years after Frankenstein had been published anonymously, she imagined that drama was her destiny. This ambition was brutally crushed by her father, William Godwin. Writing plays was sheer “laziness” on her part, he scolded “my dear Mary” (then aged 26) after reading her debut effort, and her characters were mere “abstractions”. It was never performed, and she subsequently turned to other genres instead.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">The Mousetrap opens in London - review: archive, 27 November 1952</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> JK Rowling Compulsive reading: five great literary obsessions <p>From Dickens to Du Maurier and beyond, monomanias drive as many novels as they do real lives.

These have fixated me – how about you?</p><p>Small obsessions, or tics, aren’t unusual – turning back to check the front door is locked, or washing your hands for the umpteenth time – but few of us would allow a single fixation to drive us to despair. In literature, obsessives aren’t so lucky. From a man who trades his soul for eternal youth to a jilted bride who becomes marooned inside her past, here are some of the literary monomaniacs who take things too far.</p><p>His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath … his eyes seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set … the beauty of my dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.</p><p>She did not hear me, she went on raving like a madwoman, a fanatic, her long fingers twisting and tearing the black stuff of her dress … ‘She’s still mistress here, even if she is dead. She’s the real Mrs de Winter, not you … none of us want you. He doesn’t want you, he never did.

It’s you that ought to be lying there in the church crypt, not her. It’s you who ought to be dead, not Mrs de Winter.’</p><p>She was dressed in rich materials – satins, and lace, and silks – all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table … I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes.</p><p>The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting velocity the line ran through the grooves.

Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the rope’s final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths.</p><p>‘How sad it is!’ murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. ‘How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young … If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that – for that – I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’</p><p>They found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty.

Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognised who it was.</p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Fiction Summer of content before a Dickensian storm <p>In Barnaby Rudge, his novel of the Gordon Riots, Charles Dickens gives us a vision of sunlit bliss before the murderous climax</p><p>Barnaby and his mother have almost nothing, and Barnaby wants nothing, because he has his pet raven, Grip.</p><p>“A crust of bread and scrap of meat, with water from the brook or spring, sufficed for their repast.

Barnaby’s enjoyments were, to walk, and run, and leap, till he was tired; then to lie down in the long grass or by the growing corn, or in the shade of some tall tree, looking upwards at the light clouds as they floated over the blue surface of the sky, and listening to the lark as she poured out her brilliant song,” wrote <a href="">Charles Dickens</a> in <a href="">Barnaby Rudge</a>, his 1841 novel of the Gordon Riots and the <a href="">burning of Newgate</a> in 1780. </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="">The weather according to Virginia Woolf</a> </p> <a href="">Continue reading...</a> Summer Barnaby Rudge: Amazon.co.uk: Charles Dickens: Books Charles Dickens Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle?

Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . 12 Days of Kindle Book Deals Browse over 500 Kindle Books on sale from 99p, including new featured titles for one day only. The sale is on until 3 January 2017. Shop now Product details Publisher: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press (The World's Classics) (1925) ASIN: B0013CB4DG Dickens classic fiction depicting the Gordon riots What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? By S. Hapgood VINE VOICE on 29 Nov. 2003 Format: Paperback Verified Purchase "Barnaby Rudge" was the first commercial failure Dickens had. There were a number of reasons for this, mainly I suspect that it was published during a recession, but also because Dickens had by then made a big name for himself as an observer of his own times. That is very much the image he still has today, Dickens is synonymous with the mid-19th century, so going back to the end of the 18th century wasn't perhaps commercially a good move.

These days "Barnaby Rudge" has become overshadowed completely by Dickens's other historical novel, "A Tale Of Two Cities", not helped by the fact that both books cover more or less the same themes: the horrors of mob rule, a city plunged into anarchy, the storming of a prison, and what happens when innocent people get dragged into a cause that is being manipulated by people with dubious axes to grind, plus of course the perennial theme of love triumphing in the face of evil. Having said all that, "Barnaby Rudge" holds up strongly as a book in its own right. The anti-Catholic Gordon Riots are virtually unknown to us these days (I have to admit, somewhat shamefully, I had never heard of them before, it was quite an eye-opener to find that such a devestating thing had happened in London!), but its central core theme of people becoming divided and wrecking havoc and hatred on each other is as relevant now as ever. Barnaby himself is a mentally-handicapped young man, and it is heartbreaking to see him allowing himself to be adopted by the cause in the belief that he will make his mother proud of him.

It is also a delightful portrait of someone totally pure at heart caught up in a cynical, hate-filled world. Read more › Other Dickens Novels - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Great Expectations by Charles Dickens The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Also known as The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, this novel consists of many interconnected stories about Samuel Pickwick and the other members of his social club who get into trouble around every corner. This novel is dramatic, very funny, and has great descriptive writing. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby is the story of a young man alone in the world. When his uncle gets him a job teaching at the school, Nickleby takes it, but there he finds a cruel, bullying headmaster. This novel contains the intricate plot of all Dickens novels, and is romantic, dramatic, and beautifully descriptive. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Taking place during the Gordon Riots of 1780, this novel tells the story of a young man with possible mental disabilities who accidentally gets caught up in these historical events and gets in trouble. Villains abound in this political novel, and like other Dickens titles, it is dramatic and descriptive.

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens This novel, which takes place during the Industrial Revolution, tells the story of a cold-hearted man and his relationships with his favored son and his angelic, but neglected daughter. This novel is dramatic, intricately plotted, romantic and descriptive. Bleak House by Charles Dickens Part detective story, part legal drama, part romance, this novel tells many interwoven stories that center around the court case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. One of Dickens's more satirical novels, Bleak House contains the author's trademark intricate plot line and is descriptive and romantic. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Little Dorrit tells the story of the Dorrit family, imprisoned in the Marshalsea Prison for the debt of their father. Amy Dorrit, born at the prison, strikes up a friendship with her employer's son, Arthur Clennam. This beautiful novel discusses bureaucracy and is satirical, romantic, and intricate. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens Dickens's last completed novel, a mystery, tells the story of John Harmon who receives an inheritance based on his marriage to a certain woman, but who promptly dies. Romantic and descriptive, Our Mutual Friend discusses society and wealth similarly to other novels by Dickens.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens The classic story of Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens's best known novels. When Oliver Twist is left orphaned, he is sent to a workhouse and ultimately ends up on the street working for a gang of thieves and pickpockets headed by a villain named Fagin. This novel is intricately plotted and descriptive. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens This Dickens novel features the story of Little Nell and her grandfather who live in The Old Curiosity Shop where her grandfather works. When his gambling debts catch up to him, the two are evicted and end up beggars on the street. This novel is dramatic and moving and has the classic Dickensian intricate plot. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit tells the story of a young man who goes to America to seek his fortune. A story about selfishness, hypocrisy and greed, this novel is full of villains including the title character's own brother. This coming-of-age story is dramatic, romantic and descriptive like so many other Dickensian novels. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens One of Dickens's more autobiographical novels, David Copperfield tells the story of a young man's life starting from his poor childhood and continuing through his successful adulthood.

Many splendid characters make this novel one of Dickens's best known novels. This coming-of-age story is dramatic, romantic and descriptive. Hard Times by Charles Dickens Partially a commentary on industrialization, Hard Times features the Gradgrind family, including the schoolmaster Mr. Gradgrind who leads his family and school down a path of utter rationality which leads to ruin. This novel is descriptive, dramatic and moving. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens A beautiful and impressive novel, A Tale of Two Cities is the story of the French Revolution, of two men's love of a woman, and of sacrifice. The intricate plot, with its historical details, remains moving and romantic making this novel one of Dickens's most impressive works. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens An unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a mystery without a solution which has intrigued readers for many years. The disappearance of Edwin Drood could point to murder, but in truth the world will never fully know. Dickens's last novel is atmospheric, dramatic and descriptive.

The Causes of the Gordon Riots of 1780: A Close Reading of Contemporary Accounts and Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship) Web Site: Abstract: Contemporary accounts of the Gordon Riots of 1780 are studied closely in order to ultimately determine how Dickens's use of these accounts in Barnaby Rudge reveals his view of the cause of the riots. Newspapers, political magazines, diaries, and letters are examined to discover the contemporary views of who was responsible for causing the Gordon Riots. The same historical documents are again considered to compare and contrast details of the riots. The accounts are then discussed to compare various popular descriptions of Gordon within the historical documents to determine the opinions of contemporary authors regarding Gordon and the degree of his role in the riots. The choices Dickens made as a writer of his historical novel Barnaby Rudge are then considered. Dickens's inclusions and exclusions of details from the riot proceedings as described in the contemporary documents are first examined. It is considered how Dickens used various contemporary documents to describe the Papists Act of 1778, the gathering of the rioters in St.

George's fields, the state and behavior of the crowd of petitioners upon their arrival at the Houses of Parliament, the bad treatment of the members of the Houses of Parliament, descriptions of the discussions in the Parliament, the destruction of various Roman Chapels, the number of rioters captured during the burning of the chapels, the burning of the prison Newgate, the attack upon a house of a distiller on Holborn Hill, the actions of the militia, the self-destruction of the mob through liquor, and the behavior of the hangman Edward Dennis during his imprisonment and execution. Dickens's inclusion and exclusion of the descriptions of Lord Gordon in the historical documents are then outlined. The aspects of Lord Gordon that are considered are the eccentricity of Gordon's character and Dickens's own portrayal of Gordon as a madman, the issue of whether Gordon was manipulated by foreign enemies, the degree to which Gordon may have contributed to the cause of the riots, and Gordon's charitable actions in prison. The comparisons carried out between the contemporary documents reveal the manner in which each author portrays their view of what caused the Gordon Riots and whether or not Lord Gordon should be held solely accountable.

The subsequent comparisons made between those historical documents and Dickens's use of those sources within his novel Barnaby Rudge reveal that Dickens believed that class differences rather than religious intolerance caused the riots. The comparisons also demonstrate that Dickens viewed Gordon as a madman who others manipulated into providing an atmosphere conducive to rioting. Consideration of Dickens's use of the contemporary sources also shows how Dickens crafted fictional additions to those accounts to strengthen his theme of insanity within Barnaby Rudge , consequently furthering his argument that social issues rather than religious ones caused the riots. In general, the argument is made that there is a need within academic scholarship for more close comparisons of historical texts when considering how authors used such texts as sources for historical novels.

Additional Information Download Barnaby Rudge Audiobook | Charles Dickens Download Barnaby Rudge Audiobook Click for printable size audiobook cover 3.00 (2,509 ratings) (rate this audio book) Author: Charles Dickens Narrator: Simon Vance Publisher: Craig Black Format: Unabridged Audiobook Delivery: Instant Download Audio Length: 24 hours Regular Price: $34.95 Add to Cart — or — Publisher Description Dickens’ first historical novel is set in 1780s England at the time of the Gordon Riots. In a case of mistaken identity, Barnaby Rudge—a pale half-wit with long red hair who dresses all in green and carries a large raven on his back—is arrested as the leader of a mob of anti-Catholic rioters. He is condemned to death on the gallows, but an upright locksmith named Gabriel Varden comes to his aid. Set beneath the cloud of an unsolved murder, this classic tale of treachery and forbidden love is often overlooked by present-day readers. Nevertheless, Dickens provides another memorable cast of characters, including the dull-witted, tyrannical John Willet, Dennis the Hangman, and Hugh the savage ostler.

Download and start listening now! BK_BLAK_002631 Quotes & Awards “Reader [Simon Vance] is an absolute joy, making this long and complex work accessible and entertaining. [Vance] distinguishes with charm and consistency among the huge cast of characters…Clearly [Vance] enjoys reading this novel as much as we enjoy listening to it.” AudioFile “The challenge [Dickens] presents to the narrator, with his bounteous prose and talkative eccentrics, is met resourcefully by Britisher [Simon Vance], whose unflagging energy, imagination, and finesse rank this among the best of audio Dickens.” Library Journal Listener Opinions by Melodee | 2/10/2014 " This Dickens tale concerns the riots of 1780 in London. I think the author did an excellent job of building a fiction off of the facts. His characters were well developed, and the parts of the book that dealt with the actual riots were quite suspenseful. It is a very dramatic story, and worth a read both for historical information and for its merits as a good fiction. " by Alexander | 2/9/2014 " What fun.

Simon Tappertit was a hoot, as was the family he worked for. Some of the initial promise didn't quite hold up, both in characters and plot, I'd say. Barnaby was saved, but it was rather anti-climactic; Tappertit, Grip, and Scragg were each wonderful when they first came in, but, like Tappertit's legs, didn't get displayed to best advantage later on. But on the whole I enjoyed it very much. The Gordon Riots were remarkable-- glad to be introduced to them. " by Jay Pluck | 2/6/2014 " I keep thinking of this book and also its illustrations. " by Elaine | 1/31/2014 " I did not enjoy this novel nearly as much as Dickens' later darker novels, or even the earlier Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, or Nicholas Nickleby. If you are going to tackle Dickens, try those three first and then move on to Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend. Much more interesting. " > Show All AJW | 1/29/2014 " I had never heard of this Dickens novel until now.

What a fantastic read! Not knowing anything about it meant I approached it with a fresh mind and no spoilers (unlike my experience reading 'Old Curiosity Shop' where I always knew about Little Nell). From the start I was gripped. Who was this mysterious murderous man who threatened people left, right & centre? Why was there this feud between two families? Is that a ghost or a real person in the churchyard? Who are the parents of this character? Will that smug so-and-so ever get their comeuppance? Characters that initially look evil turn out to be good and vice versa. I also love reading historical novels based on real events - in this case, the 1780 Gordon Riots in London. I was also impressed that Dickens attempted to use as a main character somebody with 'learning difficulties' (to use contemporary phrase) in a sympathetic way. Finally I love the way Dickens can coin a phrase or describe things in a vivid and original way. One example I remember is when a family climb into a carriage. Instead of mentioning the individuals, Dickens describes the noise the carriage makes and you work out who it is for yourself.

" Janice | 1/29/2014 " This is an historical fiction about a part of history (the Gordon Riots) I knew very little about. This one lost me a little in the middle but the first 1/3 and last 1/3 were hard for me to put down. " Alice | 1/28/2014 " It took me some time to get into this story, but I am glad I stuck with it. It picks up about halfway in, and then I could hardly put the book down. The vivid descriptions of the Gordon Riots are amazing -- worth the whole book by themselves, but I did come to care about the characters, as well, especially poor Barnaby. " Adrian Burke | 1/26/2014 " A plod and the women are awful. " Danica | 1/21/2014 " All time fave dickens, dark, true and dramatic, for those who love the grungy side of life! " Charles Matthews | 1/15/2014 " It's easy to see why Barnaby Rudge is one of Dickens's less popular novels.

It's overlong and overplotted, and it's awkwardly structured, falling too neatly into two halves. The first half centers on the frustrated love of Joe Willet for Dolly Varden, and the equally but differently frustrated love of Edward Chester and Emma Haredale, and on the murder of Emma's father. The second half focuses on the anti-Catholic Gordon riots of 1780. The two halves are knit together by the effects of the riots on the Willets, Vardens, Chesters and Haredales, and on the title character, the "idiot" Barnaby. But the characters -- especially Joe, Edward and Emma -- are such feeble stock figures, such conventionally drawn vessels of virtue, that it's hard to get emotionally involved with their fates. Moreover, even the "Dickensian" grotesques, such as Sim Tappertit (a name that elicits snickers from 12-year-old boys of all ages and sexes) and Miggs, are only fitfully amusing, and they quickly wear out their welcome. The one almost successful character in the novel is Hugh, the mysterious thug who may be the closest thing Dickens ever came to a tragic figure.

He enters the novel as an enigmatic and almost attractive figure -- a wild man of sorts -- and descends into villainy during the riots. But at the end, he attains a kind of tragic awareness, which he expresses in his speech before he goes to the gallows. Dolly Varden, who became the novel's most popular character, even to the extent of causing a fashion craze later in the nineteenth century, is one of Dickens's better ingenues -- which is, to be sure, not saying much, since the Dickensian ingenue is typified by the saintly Agnes of David Copperfield. But by using Dolly's flighty mother and the jealous Miggs as foils, Dickens gives her some substance, allowing her to make foolish mistakes while enhancing her attractiveness. The treatment of the riots shows Dickens's gift for the sensational, culminating in the orgiastic revel at the vintner's house, when the mob immolates itself in a fiery, drunken stupor, a fatal bacchanal of sorts.

But the vividness of the riot scenes contrasts too sharply with the insipidity of the novel's lovers, who settle down at the book's end into a complacent rural fertility, producing hordes of cherubic little Joes and Dollys. The chief flaw of the novel, however, is Barnaby himself, who resembles no mentally challenged person ever encountered in this world. He is a vehicle for pathos, a holy fool who goes astray, but he grows so annoying in this role that it's hard to care whether he's rescued from the gallows. And if you don't care about that, it's hard to care about anything that Dickens wants you to care about. Still, the novel is distinguished by Dickens's passion for justice and his contempt for hypocrisy. At its best moments, they give it a spine of conviction that keeps it from collapsing into a welter of melodrama. For American readers, the oddest thing about the novel may be its time frame: The action takes place between 1775 and 1780, when the American War for Independence was taking place.

Yet the only reference to this conflict, which surely must have preoccupied Britons even more than the Gordon riots, is in Joe's loss of an arm at the siege of Savannah, which takes place offstage from the novel's main action -- and in the chronicles of the Revolutionary War is for many people almost a footnote. Was Dickens, who was preparing for his trip to America while the novel was appearing, afraid of alienating American readers by bringing that conflict to the fore in his narrative? " eric | 1/13/2014 " I wanted to read Dickens, but I just found them too hard to get into. This is perfect for a first Dickens, it flows from the start, lovely descriptive writing, must visit the pub in Chigwell, (now an Indian Restaraunt). Something for everyone in this book, read it. " Jeri | 1/10/2014 " Interesting historical fiction about the 1780 Gordon Riots. Not Dickens' best historical fiction, but mildly amusing with some memorable characters. " Mikee | 1/6/2014 " What a wonderful book. Insightful, funny, sad, profane.

" Ayu Palar | 1/5/2014 " It's too draggy I can't finish it. Will leave it for a while. " eric | 1/1/2014 " I wanted to read Dickens, but I just found them too hard to get into. This is perfect for a first Dickens, it flows from the start, lovely descriptive writing, must visit the pub in Chigwell, (now an Indian Restaraunt). Something for everyone in this book, read it. " Marie Clunan | 12/7/2013 " going for a classic! " Stacy | 11/27/2013 " This book has everything - murder, romance, riots, humor, drama. I didn't know much about this book before reading it, so my expectations were low. I really enjoyed the characters and will remember some if them fondly. Am I the only one who liked Hugh, in spite if myself? " Misha Crews | 11/22/2013 " I enjoyed this book very much.

I didn't fall in love with it as much as with some of Dickens' other books, but like all his work it was full of tragedy, comedy and colorful characters. Definitely recommended. " Bruce | 11/19/2013 " This Dickens historical novel was an unexpected pleasure, and its tale of religious fanaticism in 1780 England is surprisingly apt for our time. Also interesting to see the model for Poe's "The Raven." The descriptions of the riots, with their attendant horrors and outrages, are unforgettable. " Akandwanaho Dominic | 11/15/2013 " Poor soul---Barnaby!!! " Darrenl | 10/31/2013 " A sometimes overlooked Dickens classic. The description of the Gordon riots is a remarkable piece of writing. " Janice | 9/27/2013 " This is an historical fiction about a part of history (the Gordon Riots) I knew very little about. This one lost me a little in the middle but the first 1/3 and last 1/3 were hard for me to put down.

" Christina Gimlin | 9/21/2013 " This was my last Dickens novel to read and I was sort of sad to let it go. It stands as strong as any of them. On to the Christmas stories, travel essays, and starting back again with Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. " Ange | 9/16/2013 " This was a BBC production of Dickens book. Subject and story were awful. Perhaps it was the acting. " Keith Rose | 8/29/2013 " interesting picture of gordon riots, with dickens usual grotesques " Bruce | 7/26/2013 " This Dickens historical novel was an unexpected pleasure, and its tale of religious fanaticism in 1780 England is surprisingly apt for our time. Also interesting to see the model for Poe's "The Raven." The descriptions of the riots, with their attendant horrors and outrages, are unforgettable. " Tom | 7/8/2013 " A very interesting but confusing book. Dickens introduces many characters in this story. But somehow they all get lost.

The plots are many and confusing and I am not sure of the story line, even after I read the book. " Keith Rose | 5/1/2013 " interesting picture of gordon riots, with dickens usual grotesques " Mick Grant | 4/13/2013 " Perhaps strangely Barnaby Rudge is not the real hero of this novel. A complex plot invoving murder and the social unrest of the Gordon Riots in 1780 London. His depiction of the mob running amok in a frenzy of sectarian hatred has a modern resonance. " Jason Reeser | 11/30/2012 " This is my favorite of all the Dickens books. I don't know why, but I read it in 9th grade, and it haunted me like no other book of its kind. I have reread it two times since, and I still feel this way. And it amazes me that no one ever mentions this book when talking about Dickens. That baffles me. " Perlie | 11/4/2012 " Very well written, but extremely disturbing. Read at the same time as Zola's Germinal.

Both deal with riots and unrest. " Julie | 3/16/2012 " So full of humor and wit. I'm reading it again and enjoying it more than the first time. How did Dickens gain such a wonderful command of the language to paint such detailed pictures. " Vickie | 1/16/2012 " A very long saga of war in England. The characters got rather confusing at times. " Lorie | 10/20/2011 " Excellent and timely. Dickens was a great storyteller. " Lili | 8/10/2011 " A little slow at times but still a good book. " Vickie | 4/27/2011 " A very long saga of war in England. The characters got rather confusing at times. " astrangerhere | 3/4/2011 " I should learn my lesson and read this one chapter at a time, like his readers did. Will try it with the next book. " Albert | 2/1/2011 " Not terribly interesting. Hard to feel anything for the protagonists.

Dickens was a master but not every book is a gem. " Andrew | 1/1/2011 " There has never been a riot committed to paper like Dickens manages here - the riots of '80! " Darrenl | 12/10/2010 " A sometimes overlooked Dickens classic. The description of the Gordon riots is a remarkable piece of writing. " Deanne | 11/19/2010 " Discovered an episode of English history of which I was ignorant, interesting story which kept me reading. " Lorie | 9/5/2010 Charles Dickens Charles Dickens, 1812-1870 Biographical note Novelist, born at Landport, near Portsmouth, where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay–Office. The hardships and mortifications of his early life, his want of regular schooling, and his miserable time in the blacking factory, which form the basis of the early chapters of David Copperfield, are largely accounted for by the fact that his father was to a considerable extent the prototype of the immortal Mr.

Micawber; but partly by his being a delicate and sensitive child, unusually susceptible to suffering both in body and mind. He had, however, much time for reading, and had access to the older novelists, Fielding, Smollett, and others. A kindly relation also took him frequently to the theatre, where he acquired his life-long interest in, and love of, the stage. After a few years’ residence in Chatham, the family removed to London, and soon thereafter his father became an inmate of the Marshalsea, in which by-and-by the whole family joined him, a passage in his life which furnishes the material for parts of Little Dorrit. This period of family obscuration happily lasted but a short time: the elder Dickens managed to satisfy his creditors, and soon after retired from his official duties on a pension. About the same time Dickens had two years of continuous schooling, and shortly afterwards he entered a law office. His leisure he devoted to reading and learning shorthand, in which he became very expert. He then acted as parliamentary reporter, first for The True Sun, and from 1835 for the Morning Chronicle.

Meanwhile he had been contributing to the Monthly Magazine and the Evening Chronicle the papers which, in 1836, appeared in a collected form as Sketches by Boz; and he had also produced one or two comic burlettas. In the same year he married Miss Catherine Hogarth; and in the following year occurred the opportunity of his life. He was asked by Chapman and Hall to write the letterpress for a series of sporting plates to be done by Robert Seymour who, however, died shortly after, and was succeeded by Hablot Browne (Phiz), who became the illustrator of most of Dickens’s novels. In the hands of Dickens the original plan was entirely altered, and became the Pickwick Papers which, appearing in monthly parts during 1837–39, took the country by storm. Simultaneously Oliver Twist was coming out in Bentley’s Miscellany. Thenceforward Dickens’s literary career was a continued success, and the almost yearly publication of his works constituted the main events of his life. Nicholas Nickleby appeared in serial form 1838–39. Next year he projected Master Humphrey’s Clock, intended to be a series of miscellaneous stories and sketches.

It was, however, soon abandoned, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge taking its place. The latter, dealing with the Gordon Riots, is, with the partial exception of the Tale of Two Cities, the author’s only excursion into the historical novel. In 1841 Dickens went to America, and was received with great enthusiasm, which, however, the publication of American Notes considerably damped, and the appearance of Martin Chuzzlewit in 1843, with its caustic criticisms of certain features of American life, converted into extreme, though temporary, unpopularity. The first of the Christmas books — the Christmas Carol — appeared in 1843, and in the following year Dickens went to Italy, where at Genoa he wrote The Chimes, followed by The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. In January, 1846, he was appointed first ed. of The Daily News, but resigned in a few weeks.

The same year he went to Switzerland, and while there wrote Dombey and Son, which was published in 1848, and was immediately followed by his masterpiece, David Copperfield (1849–50). Shortly before this he had become manager of a theatrical company, which performed in the provinces, and he had in 1849 started his magazine, Household Words. Bleak House appeared in 1852–53, Hard Times in 1854, and Little Dorrit 1856–57. In 1856 he bought Gadshill Place, which, in 1860, became his permanent home. In 1858 he began his public readings from his works, which, while eminently successful from a financial point of view, from the nervous strain which they entailed, gradually broke down his constitution, and hastened his death.

In the same year he separated from his wife, and consequent upon the controversy which arose thereupon he brought Household Words to an end, and started All the Year Round, in which appeared A Tale of Two Cities [1859], and Great Expectations (1860–61). Our Mutual Friend came out in numbers (1864–65). Dickens was now in the full tide of his readings, and decided to give a course of them in America. Thither accordingly he went in the end of 1867, returning in the following May. He had a magnificent reception, and his profits amounted to £20,000; but the effect on his health was such that he was obliged, on medical advice, finally to abandon all appearances of the kind. In 1869 he began his last work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was interrupted by his death from an apoplectic seizure on June 8, 1870. One of Dickens’s most marked characteristics is the extraordinary wealth of his invention as exhibited in the number and variety of the characters introduced into his novels.

Another, especially, of course, in his entire works, is his boundless flow of animal spirits. Others are his marvellous keenness of observation and his descriptive power. And the English race may well, with Thackeray, be “grateful for the innocent laughter, and the sweet and unsullied pages which the author of David Copperfield gives to [its] children.” On the other hand, his faults are obvious, a tendency to caricature, a mannerism that often tires, and almost disgusts, fun often forced, and pathos not seldom degenerating into mawkishness. But at his best how rich and genial is the humour, how tender often the pathos. And when all deductions are made, he had the laughter and tears of the English-speaking world at command for a full generation while he lived, and that his spell still works is proved by a continuous succession of new editions.

Question: Which Dickens novel features the Gordon Riots?
Answer: Barnaby Rudge