Barnaby Rudge
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
RG Bronze Medal 1998
23rd January 1998 at Nicki's House
Synopsis
The cheerful, cosy domesticity of the Maypole Inn; the uneasy
relationship between dull-witted, tyrannical John Willet and
elegant, cold-hearted John Chester and their sons; the sinister
activities of the apprentices plotting to overthrow their
masters: all these plunge the reader in the opening chapters
into the tense atmosphere of England just before the Gordon
Riots. When the storm breaks and Lond George Gordon embarks
on this crazed ride into London, the action explodes into
violence and mayhem. In his handling of the three riot leaders,
one of them Barnaby Rudge (mentally blighted by a crime committed
at his birth), and in his depiction of an infuriated mob storming
through the streets of London to burn down Newgate prison,
Dickens is at his most brilliant and terrifying.
First lines
In the year of 1775, there stood upon the borders
of Epping Forest, at a distance of about twelve miles from
London - measuring from the Standard in Cornhill, or rather
from the spot on or near to which the Standard used to be
in days of yore - a house of public entertainment called the
Maypole; which fact was demonstrated to all such travellers
as could neither read nor write (and at that time a vast number
both of travellers and stay-at-homes were in this condition)
by the emblem reared on the roadside over against the house,
which, if not of those goodly proportions that Maypoles were
wont to present in older times, was a fair young ash, thirty
feet in height, and straight as any arrow that ever English
yeoman drew.
Our comments
Some of us came to this book as Dickens fans (Eliane and
Nicki in particular), others as Dickens virgins (Sam) so our
reactions were different. A thoroughly rewarding book, with
wonderful characters, bleak moments (the scene in the prison
with the "lifers" is particularly powerful) humour
and set pieces such as the riots themselves. Perhaps it slightly
disappointed those amongst us who have read other more tightly
structured novels by Dickens but that is a small criticism
to make. Dickens is clearly one of the greats and if you haven't
read any yet, you should!
Related resources
Biography
on Pegasos site
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